The last week or so I've noticed a faint whine coming from my differential, particularly on deceleration while in gear. I just recently replaced the clutch and I'm assuming the extra grab from the new clutch is taking a toll on the differential. It's certainly not a loud whine, but definitely wasn't there a month ago. I'm just curious how big of a problem I'm looking at? Is it something that I should just go ahead and replace before it busts or should I save my pennies and hope to get another year or 2 out of it?

 

Checked to make sure there is still oil in it?

 

I'll check on it, but I just changed it probably 1000 miles ago and haven't seen any leaks.

 

Have you done any hard downshifts lately? After i did a couple of tire chirping downshifts my rear started making a whine while at light throttle. Its been this way for a couple of years now so i dont let it bother me too much. Perhaps some damage has been done or maybe not?

 

People have really mixed luck with our diff. I think it is a driving style and tire issue (and production tolerances). I first ran into this with the torsens on racing audis.

A regular open diff will whine on decel due to too much backlash. This gets worse and worse over time, but really is just a noise issue. A hard clunk on throttle and off throttle is another/next level of crisis.

These diffs are really just ordinary street units. Any real tire lift from sticky tires will shock load them. And they seem to wear really fast even in autocross. I have seem them really beat up after just a year of autocross. To kill the whine I used shock proof redline oil (heavy weight) in addition to the regular difflube. It quiets things down considerably, but I doubt it solves anything.

 

eh...a little whine is good. It sounds more like a race car now.

 

Hmmm, now that you mention it... It has chirped once or twice on a hard downshift, even with a close revmatch. My new clutch grabs like a monster. It's good to hear yours is still holding together Hopefully mine will do the same, I think I'm gonna start putting my pennies into a "Diff Jar" just incase...

 

Just use the proper diff oil weight.
SAE 90 GL-5
As per manual.

 

What diff oil did you put in there when you changed it? I can attest to Quaker State Full Synthetic 75w90 making the diff noticeably louder. Switching fluid to another brand/weight stopped the noise entirely (I use Schaeffers #267 80w90).

 

[QUOTE=scottrunsxc,Sep 25 2007, 08:45 AM]Hmmm, now that you mention it... It has chirped once or twice on a hard downshift, even with a close revmatch.