Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

So about an hour ago i was following friends in another car as we were driving to another friends house. We stopped at a gas station and when we left, i heard and felt this horrible grinding, crunching noise coming from the front left of the car. Didnt know what it was but it sounded terrible. We stopped at another store a few minutes later and i had my friend jump in to listen as i tried to recreate the sound in the parking lot. I wasnt able to, but we got out and were looking at the wheel and suspension stuff when i noticed a FAT half dollar+ sized puddle of liquid under my car, and the bottom of my transmission all oily. Sure enough, my car was practically pissing gear oil.

I brought the car straight home and jacked it up to see whats going on. The leak stopped which only tells me i must have lost all of my gear oil already because it is covering everything. The leak is coming from the pass. side axle seal - odd, since it was new as of a year ago, and not something that should fail unless installed wrong. So of course, i did some searching... which led me to check if there is any axle play. I dont know what is considered “excessive” axle play, but theres definitely at least 1mm of play side to side/up and down, and a rattle like coming from inside the trans when i move the axle.

So. Its appears my diff bearing is toast - unless someone can point out otherwise. FML. This isnt a total loss, as i VERY luckily happen to have a spare HLSD tranny, as well as my original open diff 6spd. But its sure a PITA shtty situation i dont want to deal with at all.

Im mostly just venting here because this really fcking sucks monster *****. But more practically - what can i do to make sure this bs NEVER happens again? I have no idea what made this happen sudden on this transmission, and i probably will never know - but i want to ensure i dont have to worry when i install the next trans. If anyone has any advice or suggestions id be very grateful. As i said this just happened less than an hour ago, im pretty salty about not having a car to get to work tomorrow or my first day of classes next week, sorry if i sound like an a hole on how i wrote this.

edit: ordering new parts tonight/tomorrow morning, couples of Qs - first off, I need axle seals, gear oil, pilot + throw out bearings (theyre new but id rather spend the 10$ and be safe) - thats all I need when putting in the next tranny, right? Clutch + flywheel were installed brand new last year so those are being reused, I cant think of anything else that I should be replacing while the tranny is down. Second Q - I just want to confirm that the axle seals are the same between HLSD and open diff, and all I need to worry about is driver vs passenger sides? Need to get this fixed ASAP as I need this car to get to work and school so I want to order parts right away, just want to make sure Im getting the correct crap first though.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Sounds like a freak failure. I beat on mine a lot. And I don't replace the seals. I put AT-205 into everything (minus brake and PS of course) when changing fluids. Bye bye main seals/tranny/diff/transfer case leaks.

User1

You were leaking THEN the problem happened. What little gear oil you saw was the last of it. By the time you got it home it had been empty for some time. WHY it leaked is my concern. A freak diff bearing failure won't cause fluid to leak past the rubber seal. I wouldn't think 1mm lash is a big deal either, or indicative of a bearing failure. The FSM has all those tolerance values. I'd fill it back up with gear oil and drive it hard for a bit while I knew it was still full and try to reproduce the grinding noise/sensation. Your manual will survive low on fluid vs autos which can't function without it.

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

Thanks guys, still not sure what the deal is and how this leak sprang up but hopefully its just a freak incident like you guys suggest.

korn - how much of that at205 do you add? Do you add it first and then the gear oil? I feel like the leak is too big for the seal to not need replacing but im going to go ahead and try that first when i get the chance.

i was under the impression that axle play = improperly shimmed diff bearing carrier which means RIP diff bearing. Its really not a huge amount of play, just about a millimeter from extreme to extreme, not from center.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

If it were extremely low, then he shouldn't be able to shift (unless rev matching), b/c the synchros won't work. I found this out first hand on a 300ZX. It had a slow leak. I parked it, then couldn't shift to leave later. Drained it and only about a quart came out. Filled her up and she was good to go. Surprisingly, it didn't get stiff, notchy or grindy before it stopped working.

And if he put new seals in and it was for fine a year, then I have to wager the seals were A-OK and the play from catastrophic failure leaked it all out.

Oh, yeah, the seal is ****ed no doubt. I just mean that I don't bother replacing the seals when swapping trannies (seems like it's a little tedious to get in just right). I've never had any leak regardless of mileage (no doubt AT-205 helps at this age).
They say 8 oz for 6 qts, so that's 1 1/3 oz per quart if you wanna use it.
But, I'm also lazy and cheap skate LOL. I just make sure to lube the CV with grease and slide it in straight.

nestorlugo

iTrader: (11)

Very true

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

You learn from the best

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

So how can i actually tell whether or not my diff bearing is good without having to open up the trans? Is there any way to check? Also i want to take a vid (hopefully tomorrow) that shows the axle play so you guys can lmk if it seems normal or not. Id love for it to be a freak seal failure but i just dont understand how that could happen unless the diff bearing is FUBAR. In the meantime im waiting for parts to arrive.

User1

Pull the axle and shine a flashlight in there. Better yet, get a USB borescope for your phone and look around. I can't recall with any vividity, but I'm pretty sure I was able to see the inner races of the bearings in question when I had my trans laying on the floor during the swap. Have you put any miles on the car since the night of the incident?

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

Pretty sure you can see as well but tbh i really wouldnt know what i was looking at in terms of whether or not it is still good or not. Im really tempted to just replace the seals and see what happens but MT85 is expensive sht and living with paranoia that its gonna leak again would drive me nuts. I would really like to determine how the seal failed to begin with. I have not drove it whatsoever since that night, i dont want to cause any more damage than what has already possibly occurred. Id take that video of the axle movement today but its unfortunately raining so its going to have to wait.

Slamrod

iTrader: (11)

So... the transmission is fine. No play with the diff bearing at all. The bad news is that the cause of the failure is entirely my fault and pretty shameful at that. Turns out the 3 bolts that hold the pass axle in the axle carrier were completely missing!! Just gone!! Which would obviously explain why the axle had play and the seal got rekt. Im the only person who works on my car so obviously i screwed up somewhere; im assuming i must have not tightened them sufficiently and they came lose over several thousand miles. Thank god i caught it right away! The trans still had at least a quart in there so i doubt anything bad happened in there, no scuffs on the axle or where it sits either - i drained and topped her off with some fresh MT-85. Replacing the seal kinda sucked since its pretty tight with the motor crossmember and ypipe in the way but a 2” pvc pipe fitting and a big heavy 4 foot prybar made it possible to basically ram it in bit by bit by having a helper do the ramming action from the pass wheel well while i guided it on target from under the car.

As for the three bolts, they got replaced and i hope i never need to pull that axle for a long time because they are NOT going anywhere now lol. To be safe i checked the torque on everything down under there - i made a checklist when i did my motor swap and used a torque wrench for everything, so that part i already knew would be good, but considering i managed to fck up here i decided to check anyways.

So that just about wraps this thread up. Moral of the story is to always double check any fastener that youve touched during a job and make sure its torqued properly.

User1

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

You are banned from working on cars XD