How to remove the front differential on a 2005 envoy

I am assuming your mechanic was refering to the front differential and your vehicle is 4x4. If the vehicle is in 4x4 all the time you may notice a " hopping " feeling on corners from the front wheels. Otherwise, the differential should not cause steering issues. What type of problem is the vehicle experiencing that concerns you and would lead your mechanic to assess a bad diff?

You shouldn't have to take out the front differential to drop the transfer case. Remove the drive shaft from the transfer case to the front differential. Then the bolts on the transmission.

You could have a front driveshaft u joint problem, or your front differential could have bad clearances between the ring and pinion. Unfortunately you will have to crawl under the vehicle to have a look at the shaft that connects up to the ffront wheels. Look for a loose shaft the should connect to your front differential. If the shaft is fine put the vehicle in neutral and move the shaft in a rotational back and forth pattern to check u joint or front cv axle style joints. Im forgetting the joint name. But you also have cv axles also that connect the diff to the front tires.

Most likely cause is the encoder motor on the transfer case. This is the motor that activates the transfer case. Usually sets a code so you may want to have it scanned.

once you have removed the headlight assembly and remove the bolt behind the headlight assembly, continue locating the 10mm bolts attaching the fender along the top side, along the bottom in front and behind of the tire, open the drivers side front door, look into the opening between the door hinges and with a flashlight and a long extension on your ratchet you will then remove the two bolts between the fender and door, one on top and one at the bottom. you also have to remove the retaining bolts that attach the inner fender liner to the fender.

This requires you nearly overhaul the entire differential minus the ring and pinion, all bearing must be replaced as the metal from the failed one has damaged the others three bearings and they will fail shortly. This job requires many special tools including a hydraulic press, remove the entire unit and have a shop rebuilt it to save money.

The front and rear differential fluid should be changed somewhere around the 75K to 100K mile area. Use a good quality synthetic gear lube fluid, 95W.

Remove center hub cap. Remove large nut behind hub cap.Lift wheel assembly off ground. Remove wheel. Remove brake calipher assembly by taking out larger bolts from back of calipher. Remove brake rotor. Pull axle toward middle of vehicle, you may have to tap axle end with small hammer being careful not to damage threads on end of axle. Remove three bolts from back, bearing housing should come out to the front.

There is a big black box on left side of vehicle when standing in front and looking at engine. There may be a bar across this box, remove it and all screws holding top of box to bottom. Filter is in there.

There should be a filler plug on top of the diff housing, it will have a square recess that will accept a 3/8" drive extension for removal.