Sorry - I mislead you all. I had the rear driveshaft replaced and not the rear differential. The shop is saying the magnet plug on the rear differential has a fingernail-sized piece of metal attached plus other fragments. The shop is suggesting a new rear differential. They can reproduce the sound by driving in a figure of eight in the car park - they say it sounds like the driveshaft is binding up and then unloading. The warranty company is now involved and might be contributing to the cost of replacement. However, I can't just fill it back up with oil and see how it drives for fear of the warranty company not paying at all. I will post another update in the next few days

 

Locker rear? You need to know so u get replaced with same as you have

Problem with warranty companies is its a bit of a scam, you have a rod knock they pay for a rod bearing rear goes bad, tear it down and find that 1 part and reuse everything else and hope it doesn't die again

Hope you have better results lol

 

How do you know if you have a locked rear?

 

Hse model usualy, or look at the diff should be a big motor on it

 

HSE is not a tell at all....look for a full-sized spare first. If you don't have a full-sized spare you don't have a locker. If you do have a full-sized spare, then look for the motor on top.

I was also going to ask if you have the locker because the binding sound is something I experienced as well. After changing the diff, I got a soft fault about Clutch Packs not being "learnt" and I found after that, that a new diff does NOT mean a new motor/actuator. I promptly had that replaced as well.

 

To close this out. It was the rear diff. I was wrong and mislead you all - sorry. Previously, I had the rear drive shaft replaced and not the rear diff. Below is the tech report for the current issue. The warranty company provided a salvaged part. So I'm back on the road and all is well - thanks for everyone's help and advice.

Physical Diagnosis/testing was able to duplicate noise on slight load
uphill turning left. also found rear differential tends to bind and release when
turning sharp on dry surfaces. with the vehicle in air checked driveshaft and rear diff found
that rear differential has excessive noise from spider gears when turning wheels
opposite directions. (note, this is a locking unit)

 

Hope you got a good used one, cool to see you got a locker

My 2005 with 50k miles had a noisy back diff, i swapped it with the one from my 06 parts truck which appeared to have been replaced, rears in these aparently suck

Nothing is built like it used too be

 

...they do seem to require more monitoring. I'd be sure to change that motor/actuator as well.