Leaking diff

[outnumbered]

Noticed a couple of drops of oil on the garage floor when I moved the car out yesterday morning, and a couple more again this morning. From sticking a camera underneath it looks like the main leak is from the propshaft bearing on the diff (and maybe a very slight weep on one of the driveshafts). It's booked in at the dealer, but they can't look at it until next Friday.

So I'm wondering about the risk of driving in the meantime. If it's just a couple of drops a day, it's not going to lose any significant quantity of oil in the meantime... but I wonder if there's any risk of a more catastrophic failure.

Anyone have more experience with these seals and have some advice ? Also how much oil does the diff hold when full ? Although it looks pretty nasty under there, I know from experience that a quite small leak quickly looks very messy.

[shane@mbtech]

Originally Posted by outnumbered

Noticed a couple of drops of oil on the garage floor when I moved the car out yesterday morning, and a couple more again this morning. From sticking a camera underneath it looks like the main leak is from the propshaft bearing on the diff (and maybe a very slight weep on one of the driveshafts). It's booked in at the dealer, but they can't look at it until next Friday.

So I'm wondering about the risk of driving in the meantime. If it's just a couple of drops a day, it's not going to lose any significant quantity of oil in the meantime... but I wonder if there's any risk of a more catastrophic failure.

Anyone have more experience with these seals and have some advice ? Also how much oil does the diff hold when full ? Although it looks pretty nasty under there, I know from experience that a quite small leak quickly looks very messy.

They hold approx 2.5litres give or take.

Should be ok if until next friday if you have only just noticed it now.

[DuncanR]

Originally Posted by lawsy

They hold approx 2.5litres give or take.

Should be ok if until next friday if you have only just noticed it now.

+1, had mine done recently was wet as fook underneath, but a little oil goes a long way at *** mph !

[NZ_M3]

I do believe the bottom of that seal is at about the same height as the diff oil filler hole so it should be fine for a short period.

[Will Fields]

[quote=outnumbered;51928]Noticed a couple of drops of oil on the garage floor when I moved the car out yesterday morning, and a couple more again this morning. From sticking a camera underneath it looks like the main leak is from the propshaft bearing on the diff (and maybe a very slight weep on one of the driveshafts). It's booked in at the dealer, but they can't look at it until next Friday.



Booked in at a dealer!!!! Not sure I would take mine (if I owned one) to dealer as I bet I know how they will change the seal........
The correct procedure is to remove the diff, strip the pinion out, change the collapsable spacer (pre load spacer) and rebuild with new seals. I know a dealer local to me once told me they would only remove the front pinion nut, remove the flange, change the seal and re tighten it (on the old collapsable spacer). This will probably ok short term (as they probably do loads over the years) but this will load the pinion bearings, causing them to run under excess load.

Could be worth asking how they will do the repair?

I wonder what their labour charge will be to do this job??

[outnumbered]

I'm not sure how they did the repair, but it is done now. As I thought, it was both the input shaft seal and the offside driveshaft. Should have knocked a few more quid off when I bought the car !