How on earth...

[estutjaweh]

...am I gonna get my diff sealed.
It has always leaked a little and after replacing all seals I finally found out why - the oil seems to be escaping through the adjustment screw thread (passenger side). Now, back after I figured this out I simply cleaned it up to get through the pending MOT intending to tackle it later but oops...I forgot about it and this weekend, a month later, my garage floor is showing no signs of oil leakage and the diff has started to whine.

Okay, so I have obviously lost all the oil but I don't want to just replace teh oil each month (obviously) so what now? Can anyone let me know the best way to reseal the diff on this screw thread area. Is it literally a case of drop the drive shaft, unscrew the adjuster (counting the rotations) PTFE tape and screw back up? If so, can I do that in situ or must the diff come out? What other methods may work?

Stewart

[spend]

Sounds to me like your breather (on the top) has been blocked so in normal operation the diff is 'forcing / pumping' oil out. So you have loosened the filler cap to allow it to breathe......???

[estutjaweh]

It has a breather?? Hmm, didn't know that. The filler cap and drain plug are both tight so that sort of makes sense I guess. Do you have a photo showing whereabout on the top I can locate the breather ... maybe I can try and unclog it somehow.

[Sardonicus]

On my lunch break so your lucky here you go (of course I am presuming your is in this location the GKN diff uses 2 different rear covers ) Dave help

Edited by Sardonicus on Monday 20th May 12:41

[estutjaweh]

Hi, thanks. Mine is actually a BTR diff but I've since found a photo online and it seems the breathers are in the same position as the GKN ones. I*'ll unbolt it and try to clean it somehow...hopefully thats all the problem actually is.

[estutjaweh]

UPDATE:

Checked and cleaned the breather, refilled with oil, checked the gearbox (oil level was okay) and the engine oil has been topped up. The thing still whines but now it has started to sound more like a supercharger. It is definitely engine speed dependent. Any ideas? Could this be the PAS pump? Alternator? Water pump?

Help

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I'd be checking the PAS fluid level.

[Sardonicus]

Take the drive belt off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfIg2afMts8 and run the motor briefly followed by turning each ancillary in turn to see what's creating the noise

[estutjaweh]

PAS fluid level is fine. I checked that first along with all the other fluid levels.

[nawarne]

May be well wide of the mark here.

Seem to remember a Fiat 127 we had developed a whine like this - definitely engine revs related. Turned out to be the alternator bearing getting a bit dry. Squirt of WD40 and voila! whining stopped.

Nick

[estutjaweh]

I'll try all of that later thanks. I'm just worried that the repetitive belt removal in recent months has caused the waterpump bearing to go. According to a friend many car firms always replace the waterpump with the belt now simply as a matter of course. Bugger I hope its not that.

[spend]

estutjaweh said:

I'll try all of that later thanks. I'm just worried that the repetitive belt removal in recent months has caused the waterpump bearing to go. According to a friend many car firms always replace the waterpump with the belt now simply as a matter of course. Bugger I hope its not that.

You are being stupid.... The water pump is probably the cheapest & easiest candidate to replace in that area (even cheaper than a new belt!) so would be a good result. The pump is pretty solid and your friend is talking bks in connection with the RV8 ~ it does not really have that much in common with modern shoe-horned engine bays and components designed to fatten service department wallets in lieu of sales prices (never mind the carbon foot prints that all the new components have compared to the minimal emissions differences they achieve!)

A long stick of wood placed to the ear & carefully pressed against components is probably the easiest way to isolate which ancillary is at fault IMHO. Wood always seems to work better than metal IME. Just run briefly with the belt off first to see if the noise goes away then you can either start tracking down the auxiliary components or look elsewhere depending on the outcome.

[Andy JB]

The wine could be your PS pump - mine used to do this until i replaced it as it started to drive me insane - the warmer the system the worse the noise.

Normally pretty robust units, but if you run them dry or have a leak (in my case seals went) the unit runs dry & wears rapidly as a consequence