Porous rear axle!

Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.

Nige

Reply to
/\/ / & E
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On or around Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E" enlightened us thusly:

can you spot where it's leaking from? Clean the axle casing, bet you find a small rust hole. Weld it up. YMMV, IMHO, etc.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

It's gone rusty. You could clean it up and slap some Chemical metal on the holes, slap it on in a big patch and it should cure the problem. Although you're probably best looking for a replacement axle in the long term, as the rust problem is only going to get worse, not better unless you have it cleaned, welded, and re-painted properly.

Alex

Reply to
Alex

Yeah, thought as much, how much for a cheapie casing or full axle roughly?

I'll clean the new one up & change everything over etc. But a full axle (less diff as it's good) would be better.

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Reply to
Nige

I reckon it's goosed. It leaves a 10-15cm diameter puddle at every hour long stop when hot! I'll have a good look & see what can be done. If not, how easy is it to change (all known to be good) diffs & bits over to a new case, or at least a good case powder coated for the laugh!

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Reply to
Nige

Thought occurs to check *where* it's leaking from

Porous axle in this case may only be a poor gasket seal between the diff and the housing.

Yes, I suspect that I may not have got the best seal going when I did that, but I damn well hope that diff's good - it cost enough grief to get in!

P.

Reply to
Paul S. Brown

Changing all the bits over is not a difficult job, just a fairly big one, particularly if (as is likely) some of the bolts are stubborn. Remove axle complete assembly - u-bolts, prop shaft, brake line, shock absorbers. Remove brake drums, remove drive flanges and axles, remove hubs, remove stub axles and complete brake assemblies. Remove differential assembly. Reassemble in reverse, renewing bits as necessary. Bleed brakes, refill diff. As a minimum you will need gaskets for the diff and drive flanges, but it is probably a good idea to replace the hub seals while you are at it, and you will need new lock washers for the wheel bearings, and new nyloc nuts for the prop shaft and u-bolts. other bits you may need include the u-bolts that break while you are trying to undo them. Think I've covered everything. JD

Reply to
JD

Na, chaps had a good look & he says it's corroded through the case. Not a big problem in a 23 year old S3 & to be expected at some point. Might be easier to just replace the whole axle/casing as the diffs fine with no noise etc. Odd that the diff case should rot through & yet the chassis is solid!

Anyone got a S3 88" rear axle for sale?

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Reply to
Nige

New axle time then! Well, a decent 2nd hander will do as it only gte a bit of use really.

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Reply to
Nige

Youve made that a bit overly complicated!. Me and a mate managed to do the rear axle casing and diff on his landy in only a couple of hours one day after his diff blew up. You can leave the shocks attached to the plate under the axle and the chassis while you do the swap. You can also leave the brake system intact - leave it all attached to the backplate and then just cable tie or hang it out of the way while you replace bits to stop it

jack up landy and put axle stands under chassis at rear. Take off the rear wheels Remove prop from rear diff. pull out rear half shafts attached to the end plates (6 bolts at each end) remove brake drum remove hub remove brake backplate. take shoes off if necessary but leave the cylinder and flexy pipe alone (tie the cylinder down to stop it expanding while its out). tie it up out of the way chop u bolts with an angle grinder if they dont look like they will undo (so if they have been on there more than a couple of years), Pull out the axle casing and diff. leaving the shocks in and attached to the plate that sits between the axle and spring. You might fid it easier to shuffle if back one way then out under the rear x-member.

Think thats it!. Ive done this job a few times!

Aye. Make sure you have all the gaskets you need ready before you start (will probably cost less than a quid for all of them) I always keep a pile of hub lock washers, hub oil seals and hub gaskets at home as i seem to get through a lot of them!

Also, you could do with a hub nut socket if you dont want to have to chisel them in and out! (will only cost you a few quid and is very useful to have!)

Reply to
Tom Woods

more like it!

Ta

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Reply to
Nige

If i were you i'd try cleaning it up and welding it first like Austin says as its a lot less hassle. since the rest of it is working fine right now seems a bit silly to disturb it all if you dont have to!

Reply to
Tom Woods

It's possible that he may be able to fix it - at least temporarily.

A more permanent fix would be to replace the diff pan:

DA1044 Replacement Diff Pan - Rear (With Hole For Filler Plug) £38.66 inc VAT DA1045 Replacement Diff Pan - Front & Rear (No Hole For Filler Plug) £36.66 inc VAT

Cheers Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

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