I have a 2011 Ford Ranger 2WD with 8.8 rear diff. A couple of months ago I put P265s on the truck (old tires were P215s). Anyways, I think I have a bad bearing in the rear differential. I've heard bigger tires can cause issues with the rear differential (the noise I hear from the rear diff has been there since before the new tires but its slowly getting worse). Would this be a good time to change to a different differential or just rebuild the one currently on the truck?

 

Welcome to the forum

The 8.8" can handle the larger tires, these axles were used on full size Broncos, Mustangs(still) and the F-150s with V8 power

Have a look here to see what ratio and differential you have now: https://therangerstation.com/tech_li...le_codes.shtml

You are better off rebuilding since Ranger rear disc brake axles are not usually available, they are snapped up by people with earlier Ranger models

When you change tire diameter the speedometer and odometer will be off, they are calibrated for stock tire size
If you have 3.73 ratio you could change to 4.10 ratio for better performance with larger diameter tires
You can also change to Limited Slip(L/S) if you have an OPEN differential now