WTF? Ring gear bolts came loose and went threw Diff cover!

[Unit 5302]

I'd be more worried about shavings from bolts in there. They can take out a bearing easy. Rear ends need to be kept very clean when they are in operation.

The bearing is unlikely to be shot from a very short time being run low on fluid, but I think the guy should have noticed it when the bolt blew through the cover. So only 1 bolt was all the way out? If that's the case, they were improperly torqued. Whether that was the result of a bad torquewrench, or improper torquing proceedures, or wrong torque specs, that is was caused the problem. Also, there had to be some serious pressure to blow a bolt through the cover. I'd be looking really close for a chipped tooth on a gear, and checking them out.