Mini rant... You've been forewarned. I discovered last week that the axle tube on the rear passenger side has spun inside the diff housing on my 2012 JK Rubicon. It's my understanding that this is a known problem, although not incredibly common. I've definitely heard of it a few times.

Long story short, I was welding on some beefier lower control arm mounts and was taking some initial measurements so that I knew where to locate them. I noticed about a 5 degree rotational difference in the bump stop pads but thought nothing of it because I figured it was just sloppy tolerances. The stock brackets were 5 degrees off as well but again, I didn't over think it. Upon further thought and inspection, I realized that it was not sloppy tolerances but rather the tube had rotated on the passenger side. The 4 plug welds on that side of the housing were completely gone and you can see a shiny sliver of metal in the bosses on the housing which indicated that it had rotated and bare metal was showing.

So that wasn't short, but anyway, dealership pushed the issue up to the district manager and my warranty claim was denied. I am still covered under the power train warranty. It's no secret that my jeep has been modified but I found their reason for denying the claim to be bogus. I have 4.88 gears and they said they "could not warranty the differential because I had modified the differential". Do they not understand that I'm referring to the housing and not the guts? They also claimed my new brackets could be the cause of the failure. Well, no, the brackets were replaced but the jeep has seen zero road time since then so that is not the cause. Again, this is a known issue. I'm an engineer, and I also know what good and bad welding looks like. The plug welds were absolute crap and that is poor manufacturing from the factory, period. Just today I found out that a friend of mine with a 2012 has the exact same problem.

Wondering how many 2012 owners would be willing to go out, take some photos of the plug welds on your rear diff and post them up here. Also if you have an angle finder (or a phone app), post up the difference in your bump stop pad angles.

Misery loves company. Looking to see who else might have a rotated housing and not know it. Thanks!!

Someone on here spun both tubes on trail. Had pic of diff almost strait up!

That would be Jonathan JK... spelling I wrong though. He did it on a trail at Uwharrie, NC

I'd shit if I looked at mine and it was spun... Definitely been having some crazy vibes, squeezing, and locker kicking in and out lately.

Yep Spun and spun. Been up Daniel several times on that same spot. After taking a look at the plug welds that we could find on the trail it was a shit job. They had air bubbles in them and no penetration. When we scraped the old one. My friend said I should try dispute the quality to Jeep. But my fabricator said they would deny it because of G2 Shafts G2 gears and an Eaton E-lockers

Ended up getting a takeoff from "TheGoat" (Thanks Bro your a lifesaver) and welded that housing up.

Also someone on here spun tubes going 70MPH on the highway off a bump on a bad bridge transition spot. Plug welds fell right off. Too bad we could not get more examples of this we could actually start a recall of some sorts.

Exactly my point... Trying to gather data and see how many we can find. I'm doubting that they'd issue a recall but I know for a fact they've acknowledged that it is a known issue. Even if people don't have a spun tube but would be willing to share some photos of their plug welds, I'd really appreciate it.

Sick white Oakleys, bruh!

Thanks Chuck. I want to start a collection... I only have a Black set and a white set so far but Jeep parts keep getting priority over the Blue, Red, and Yellow frames I want to buy. Sad part is my wife bought me a nice Sunglass display case for christmas because I told her I wanted to collect Oakley Sunglasses. Dam Jeep Keeps on stealing my extra money.

Okay, well I'll start. Here is a little collage of my missing plug welds and the silver smiley indicating the tube had spun.

Please, if anyone else can go take pics of your plug welds and post them up, I'd really appreciate it. 2012 and later, rear axle only!

The rosette welds on my '09 JKUR cracked in spots a long time ago, I think when I did Riff Raff on Rusty Nail about five years ago. I had the local fab shop take a look at it and he advised to just put a couple weld beads between the housing and the tubes. BUT, he's fearful the housing would warp unless he pulled it, disassembled it and put it in his jigs. I said screw it.