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Intermittent Differential Seal Leak (after half-shaft replaced)

Replaced half-shaft 3,100 miles ago at 107,500. Friday morning I saw the differential seal leaking, about one drop every 2 seconds. It had lost 14 ounces of fluid overnight. I moved the car to the street to clean up the driveway mess, and realized several hours later it had stopped dripping as soon as the car moved. The street is still clean after 2 days.

Now, today, I've driven it about 6 or 7 miles to put it through another hot/cold cycle and check for drips, and to bring the tranny to operating temp to verify fluid level.

What is the likelihood that this could be an intermittent problem for the foreseeable future? Or should I just forget about milking it along, and replace the seal before a "catastrophic" failure? Anybody here with "real world" experience in this?

Thanks.

Reply to
jmattis
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What year is the car? Is it a manual tranny?

Unfortunately, the 95-99s are known for differential carrier bearings failing, and the first symptom is leaking at the seals.

Another possibility is the half-shaft isn't being held in cleanly by its circlip - that will also cause leaking when the axle isn't clicked in solidly.

Dave

Reply to
David Geesaman

Is this a standard or automatic car? Did you check the seal surface for wear when you installed the shaft? Did you oil the seal surface when you installed the shaft? Doubtful that it's magically going to stop leaking permanently (but I think you know that).

Reply to
JimV

It's a '96 auto with limited slip differential.

Sounds like the best case scenario, as far as repair, is a loose circlip, and the possibilities get progressively worse thereafter. I hadn't even considered bad bearings in the diff. Ugh.

And if the circlip isn't doing it's job, things could get really nasty if the wheel goes through an extreme excursion, and pulls the shaft completely out of the differential.

Reply to
jmattis

The differential carrier bearing problem is pretty much a manual transmission only issue. I don't think the autos have this problem.

I feel this is a very low risk. It is most possible the axle seal simply got torn or damaged.

Dave

Reply to
David Geesaman

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