Hiya Fido!

Latest update:

The mechanic says that when he opened the truck up, yes, the "plug" or whatever on the rear differential WAS in place . . . but that it was bone-dry inside, no differential fluid (or gear oil) whatsover, only dust and "bits of chewed-up gears" (!).

There's a difference of opinion on what went wrong:

The JiffyLube receipt says "differential fluid OK." And the Jiffy Lube manager insists that it's "impossible" that they didn't check the level, and there "must" have just been a leak,/ He says the fluid or oil doesn't ever just burn off; and that for it to dissipate at all, much less go dry, the only possible explanation was that there was a leak.He claims that even if, "worst case scenerio," they DIDN'T check the differential level, it's not their fault, because a leak is the only explanation, and a leak isn't their problem.

But the mechanic disagrees: He saw no evidence of fluid or oil having been in there "in a long time" . . .and he believes that it's "impossible" that the differential fluid level was OK only a few hours earlier. He says it has to have been very low or empty when I took it to Jiffy Lube.

My suspicion is that Jiffy Lube did NOT check the level; they just checked "okay" automatically. After all, it would have had to have been a really dramatic leak for it to go from full to empty in a couple of hours, right? And I was looking around under the car when I was trying to start it, en route from Jiffy Lube home, and saw no dramatic guyser-type giant leak then . . . .so I suspect that JiffyLube IS at fault, for not checking the level when they said they had.

I'm going to contact corporate headquarters of Jiffy Lube.

So no conclussion yet. The mechanic is looking around to try to find a new "rear end." I'll keep you posted. . . .

Best regards,
B