This is the post he is refering to. it is not HTG, but someone from the Rick's crew.

 

Please a 911 That car is twice the money that the S is. This car is MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH in it's stock format only A-HOLES like us think that we can improve it. That said putting twice the horse power to the drive train than ever intended is a risk and a personal choice.
The week link in this car is the clutch once you upgrade that the next thing you WILL be replacing is your rear end.
This car gets compared to cars that cost two and three times it's sticker price. The thing is it is a much better car than any in it's price range. The fact that it performs as well as some that are priced much higher Leeds to comments like you are making.
$hit brakes that

 

Pending final diagnosis

 

!!!!!! oops

 

Wow the negativity from everyone...

So you modified something...it broke and you're complaining about the durability of stock? You upgraded every single piece of the diff except the one that failed and you're complaining...

That being said. When has changing gear ratios ever been a science? It's more of an art than anything. That's why a lot of people that rebuild engines and install turbos take gears to someone else. If you look up install specs from people on this board, some say they used stock specs, other use half of the backlash as stock, others use more/less.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but too many people are complaining about something that should've been taken care of IMHO. If you beef everything up but one, the one non-upgraded part now has to take all the stress because the upgraded parts are too rigid to share the load.

 

A man If Ckit's driving habits are to extreme for the S2000 then I say buy a tank because this car has proven it's self as a durable driver at 200k on Modifie

 

Yes, you are correct. I am part of Rick's. The gears are made for us and only two other vendors sell them. So when a thread like this is posted, I read it. This thread has no information onm what was wrong, or any other data. It just slammed the gears (in the title) and left the rest open.

My post was more to get some details and I was short on time. I have a day job and as part of that day job, I can be disconnected from the net for days at a time. Today, I am in Chicago for the night. I leave in the AM back to Houston.


What I wanted to know, is the following:

1. How did you break it in? Details?
2. What were you doing when it failed?
3. How do you know that is the problem?

The fact help everyone.

Now you did cover a few on the above. You should drain the oil and look for metal. That is easy and will be very telling. If it was the gear, you should see the tooth if one did indeed break off.

 

1. As per HTG recommendations: drove smooooothly for 1,000 miles. No dumps, launches, etc. Changed rear diff fluid at that time with more LE607. Very minor sludge on the drain plug.

2. It has not completely failed yet. Drove home from a wedding this past weekend. No driving conditions or circumstances out of the ordinary. In retrospect, I heard a subtle rear whining that wasn't there before. My car is sound dampened to decrease the original 4.57 gear whine and the new whine was subtle. I thought maybe there was a police siren in the distance.

Car sat in the garage for two days, it was rainy and took the Audi to work. Also, had the hardtop strikers off the car to EPT sealant the rattles. Finished the striker rattle fix and went for a drive to test if rattles.

3. Heard a faint recurrent thumping that got louder during the course of that single drive. It is marked under light-medium transmission loads and especially when rocking on and off the accelerator under those loads.

Searched under symptoms of loose axle nuts, figured that would be a single pop / creak and not a repetitive one that was speed responsive and transmission load responsive.

Jacked the car up and looked to see if the transmission was hitting or tapping against anything.

Also checked the condition of the CV boots. They are dry and intact.

Went to the Honda dealer, they put it up on the lift and they identified that the thumping noise is coming from the differential.

In driving the car, I can tell you that there are some very subtle hints as well. It loses speed on deceleration more rapidly than before... like it's dragging an increased friction load. It also feels a little unsteady and wanders around like a tipsy man on the street.

Like has been posted before, the Honda dealer doesn't rebuild diffs. There's no point in having them pull it before the replacement comes in the mail. I don't want the car sitting on the dealer lot in the meantime.

The thought of hub/bearing is a good one, though.

 

actually to break it in you were supposed to do 3-4 heat cycles... getting the gear warm by driving the car for 15 miles or so then letting it rest to cool down and repeat. after that it should be properly broken in.

you're lucky .. when my diff went boom, couldnt even move one inch forward! sounds like a bunch of metal bits thumping and tumbling around.

i had to push my car up and over an overpass.. then coast down it to a gas station! barely made it there.. had to hop out and push a little to make it through the last intersection

 

HTG did the heat cycling for me. He had the car for a week.