Quaife ATB LSD problem maybe.

[nomis36]

At the start of this year I started to get a whine from the diff on my 2006 E92 330d (215L)
I got a local gearbox specialist to renew all the bearings and all was good for a couple of weeks but then the whine started up again! I took it back to them. They confirmed the bearings had gone bad again so said they’d do them again FOC.
When I refitted the diff I drove up the road which immediately showed the whine had moved from around 35mph to about 60mph.
By this point I had lost all faith in the place that did the job originally so took it to another specialist and left it with them for a couple of days while I went away. He rang me the next day to say the bearings are on their way out again, the crown and pinion teeth are showing no signs of wear but the oil is showing metal shavings in it. Because I had to have the car back for work I couldn’t let him have it longer to completely strip it down to find out what’s causing it but he suspects the quaife unit itself maybe chewing itself up inside.
Birds BMW fitted it about 3.5 years ago and I’ve still got the receipt. I am going to call quaife tomorrow as they have a lifetime warranty, just hope I registered it with them back then, can’t remember if I did or not. Hope that’s not an issue if I didn’t :-/
Anyway, has anybody else had a similar issue and had to start a warranty claim? My concern is they’ll just say I’ll have to take it back to birds for them to strip it down and report their findings to quaife. Then if they concede the diff is faulty what about the bearings which are now damaged again? The other issue is birds are a long way from me so it’s not like I can just pop in.
Just realised this post is a ‘bit’ on the long side……we’ll done if you’ve read this far :-)

[stevieturbo]

The chances of the Quaife unit causing this problem are almost zero.

The chances of it being a build or oil issue...are rather much higher.

[GreenV8S]

I wonder whether debris from the bad bearings has got inside the diff and caused more damage there, and now you're seeing the consequences of that. Or it could just be some silly mistake refitting the bearings.

You're going to have to find a way to leave the car with somebody you trust for a few weeks while they get to the bottom of it.

[Zener]

Crap set/up bearing preloads etc , the bit that takes time unlike throwing in some bearings and banging it together again , often the same story with gearbox rebuilds also IME when alien/new major components fitted

[nomis36]

I have got a spare diff but from an auto so 2.81 ratio instead of 2.35 like my manuals.
I had it fitted while they fitted new bearings the first time and it was fine if a little low ratio’d, 6th felt like 5th.
I think I’m going to fit that then dismantle the noisy diff myself and see what I can see.

[GreenV8S]

nomis36 said:

I think I’m going to fit that then dismantle the noisy diff myself and see what I can see.

You'll need to at least understand how to shim a diff, even if you don't have the skills to do it yourself. Otherwise you could well end up chasing faults in perfectly good components, when the problem is how they were assembled.

[stevieturbo]

So you're saying it's the CWP that is actually noisy, not the actual diff unit itself ? Not that a Quaife generally makes any sounds.

Or is it the diff bearings ? Or some combination ?

[nomis36]

GreenV8S said:

You'll need to at least understand how to shim a diff, even if you don't have the skills to do it yourself. Otherwise you could well end up chasing faults in perfectly good components, when the problem is how they were assembled.

I have watched a good video on YouTube of a place refurbing a 188 diff. In that they showed the 2 shims on the output side and made a point of saying they must be replaced on the side they came out of. I wonder if they got them mixed up. Problem is, how do you tell because I doubt they’re L & R marked. Engineering blue to make sure the crown and pinion are meshing correctly? Anyway, I will probably not reassemble it, I’ll be getting specialist number 2 to do it I think.

[nomis36]

stevieturbo said:

So you're saying it's the CWP that is actually noisy, not the actual diff unit itself ? Not that a Quaife generally makes any sounds.

Or is it the diff bearings ? Or some combination ?

Specialist number 2 says the pinion bearings are noisy again. He said the crown and pinion teeth look fine so wondered if something in the quaife is disintegrating and contaminating the oil which is destroying the bearings. The oil had only been in it for a couple of weeks but came out grey.

[nomis36]

Just to add, he couldn’t investigate further because it would have meant completely dismantling it which would ruin the seals which he’d have to order. As I needed the car back I had to tell him to put it back in the car. I wish I hadn’t been on holiday because I could have taken the auto diff over for him to fit instead while I work out what to do with the manual/quaife one.

[stevieturbo]

In the meantime, why not just buy another used diff for it ? It's a common car, there are bound to be thousands out there pretty cheap ?

Or what is the car actually used for ? Buy a built up diff from a proper specialist ?

[driver67]

Are you sure it's not the rear wheel bearings ?

Both of mine needed replaced around 3 years ago (2005 plate 130i with Quaiffe LSD).

Cheers,
Dougie.

p.s. This was around 110k miles, now on 145k.

Edited by driver67 on Monday 19th July 04:01

[nomis36]

stevieturbo said:

In the meantime, why not just buy another used diff for it ? It's a common car, there are bound to be thousands out there pretty cheap ?

Or what is the car actually used for ? Buy a built up diff from a proper specialist ?

I did that in buying the auto diff which has a 2.81 ratio. These are indeed plentiful and cheap but manual 2.35 diffs are much more rare and when they do come up for sale command a premium price, about double! Then paying £500 for a diff that’s potentially also worn out doesn’t make sense.

[nomis36]

driver67 said:

Are you sure it's not the rear wheel bearings ?

Both of mine needed replaced around 3 years ago (2005 plate 130i with Quaiffe LSD).

Cheers,
Dougie.

p.s. This was around 110k miles, now on 145k.

Edited by driver67 on Monday 19th July 04:01

Definitely not wheel bearings.

[driver67]

nomis36 said:

Definitely not wheel bearings.

I would phone Kevin at Birds, explain and see if he has any answers ?

Long journey for any work but worth a phone call anyway,

Dougie.

[Zener]

nomis36 said:

stevieturbo said:

So you're saying it's the CWP that is actually noisy, not the actual diff unit itself ? Not that a Quaife generally makes any sounds.

Or is it the diff bearings ? Or some combination ?

Specialist number 2 says the pinion bearings are noisy again. He said the crown and pinion teeth look fine so wondered if something in the quaife is disintegrating and contaminating the oil which is destroying the bearings. The oil had only been in it for a couple of weeks but came out grey.

Pinion brg preload the most often cocked up setting IME followed closely by pinion crown-wheel mesh

[stevieturbo]

nomis36 said:

Specialist number 2 says the pinion bearings are noisy again. He said the crown and pinion teeth look fine so wondered if something in the quaife is disintegrating and contaminating the oil which is destroying the bearings. The oil had only been in it for a couple of weeks but came out grey.

Highly unlikely, the only thing in the Quaife diff are gears.

Someone is building it wrong.

[nomis36]

I'm inclined to agree that it was built wrong which is why i've lost confidence in the guy that did it originally and moved on to somebody else that's been highly recommended by a friend. I think my plan of action is to refit the auto diff this weekend and get him to completely dismantle it and work out whats going wrong. Unfortunately, the bearings and seals for these large case BMW diffs aren't cheap and i really shouldn't be throwing more money into my old car but i love the thing and can't really back out of the money pit now. Apart from this issue it drives fantastically well for it's age and miles.
I'll update this thread when he's stripped the diff down and had a proper look. Maybe i'm wishful thinking it but i'm pretty confident the quaife is ok, can't find a single thing on google from anybody saying theirs had worn out and as you say, there really isn't much inside them that can wear out. He did say last week the crown and pinion teeth look fine so that's a relief because i bet they're not easy or cheap to get hold of so that just leaves the bearings. I'm putting my money on the shims being put in the wrong way round or more likely just didn't get the pinion pre load correct. It's different on the large case to the small case diffs.

[nomis36]

This is the video i watched right back at the start of my diff woes and very nearly decided to have a go myself until i found i couldnt buy the bearing set for much less than the 'specialist' said he could do it for so i decided to let the 'expert' do it. Wish i'd just fked it up myself now or not probably because i'd have taken my time and done lots of research before attempting it.

https://youtu.be/WSRgCX_LmOM

[nomis36]

The long saga of a whining diff is still haunting me! I started stripping it down and yeah, the pinion bearings are shot……..again.
Unfortunately I’ve only got an impact 32mm long reach socket so couldn’t get the nut off because the walls are too thick on impact sockets so wouldn’t go on it. I reckon the people that did the bearings first time round didn’t clear all the old contaminated oil out of the quaife as it looks like it would have to be opened up to get inside it then the oil contaminated the new bearing and fked them.