Got 77k on an original diff, stop doing burn outs and hard launches.

Get a mustang if you want to drive like a noob.

 

 

I'm almost at 90k on my stock 05' diff. Only launched it 4-5 times, but many autox, mountain, and a few track miles, it's holding up just fine.

 

This may be a lame theory but let me try it out.....

Having watched just about every stupid car related show on tv and having seen several custom hot rod builds when they hook up and engine through a driveshaft to the differential they say the mounting points and the hookup must be very precise or you will go through differentials very fast. I think they called it the "pinion angle" must be exact to within a small margin of error. Now on a mass produced car built to within certain tolerances, this should not be an issue. But what if something is "loose" or "off" a degree or two and you get undo stress placed on the differential. Either something may have been wrong from the factory or you may have screwed the first one on your own but the installs of the ones since have been off a bit.

This might be a load of crap as a theory, but you are not the only one to complain about going through a few diffs in short order on here and it either comes down to something being a bit off, total coincidence, or you beat the crap out of your car and should not complain.

There are tons of people out there who autocross their cars, have high miles, and never had an issue.

There have also been issues with dealers using the wrong diff oil (for a CRV) which will destroy them quickly as well.

Good luck.

 

For your info, I'm talking about "driving style," not "launching style." I don't do burnouts or donuts or clutch dumps. In fact, I don't even know how to launch a car. I don't care for drag racing cuz I think that's a domestic thing left for cars that can't turn, I kid I kid!

Now to answer the rest of the questions:

I'm on my original OEM clutch. At 89k miles it's still holding on fine without slippage. If I was truly being a retard to it I would've burned it up already.

As for driving style, what I do is to engage 1st gear smoothly, and then accelerate, 2nd, 3rd to about 70mph (highway speed limit is 65), and shut down. This is just the commute to work and if given the room I'd do it. This has gone on about 2 or 3 times a day for a year and 1/2 or so. I WOT often in 1st and second... again I don't dump the clutch. I simply engage, and open the throttle once the clutch is all the way out. it's surprising that the clutch is doing perfectly fine. Let's see if it can make 100k.

I revmatch 100% of the time and passengers often comment on how they feel ZERO jerkiness while shifting gears.. fast pace or slow stroll thru a downtown street. No gearlocks here.

What I was doing lately was lift oversteering on purpose at the entrance of a cloverleaf ramp, and then catching the slide by WOT'ing the car in 3rd. I believe that's what put the final nail in the coffin for this diff.

I just brought the car home and did a quick diagnosis. My driver side diff bearing cap failed/fractured.

 

Also, the first OEM diff blew up at 40k or so. 2nd was an used unit that blew up a month later because I was missing 2 of the studs that mount the rear cover to the car and you can imagine the rest. 3rd diff was another used one and held on for about 50k in 1 and 1/2 years. Yes, I travel with this car often. Most of the miles are highway steady cruise ones.

 

 

[QUOTE=fatjoe10,Jun 2 2010, 02:31 PM] For your info, I'm talking about "driving style," not "launching style." I don't do burnouts or donuts or clutch dumps.

 

It's three used diffs.

If each used diff had 50k on them before he got to them, then it's 3 diffs in 200k miles. And the one that broke because it was missing bolts is pure human error.

In conclusion, it's within the realm of possibility and bad luck.

Time to get a NEW diff and report back if that breaks.

 

I got the car with 23k miles and did a fluid exchange with Mobil 75w90. Blew up at 40k. Next one had fresh Mobil fluid again and it failed but that was beyond the oil. The one that just blew was changed about every 10k or so given my rather harsh driving. I do my own work, and to the letter of the OEM manual. Same fluid was used for all the exchanges.

Also notice that this isn't a case of the more common pinion teeth failure, but the actual bearing cap. FWIW, comptech had the reinforced caps to cure this but ppl said they still blew diffs so the jury is out on that.

I'm still open to ideas. If there's something I'm doing wrong with the driving that's messing up diffs then I'd like to hear about it and change the habit.