rear diff is making a whining noise, I can hear when slowing down at 30-0 mph, with trans in neutral. I want to have it inspected. can these be rebuilt? or do I have to buy a new one? my 00' s2k has only 20k. and have done the oil change to amsoil 2000-75w-90. my mechanic said to try his 90w hypoid oil. and if it still makes noise, then take it to honda and see if they will help. with all the diff problems we see here , why does honda not fix this? thanks for your help.

 

It depends more on what is wrong inside the diff. I bought a used diff from a board member that was whining. Once we took it apart, it turned out to be the carrier bearings holding the LSD.

But to directly anwser your question, yes it can be rebuild. But it can also be damaged beyond repair as well.

 

thanks, do you recall the cost?

 

The cost of what? Parts or labor?

 

parts, and labor.

 

Was it making the noise prior to switching to the Amsoil 75W90? The Amsoil will do nothing to quiet diff noises. It may reduce friction, but not noise. LE is well respected on the site and will quiet some noise. However, Rick may be right in that it's your bearings going bad (unless someone had installed 4.57 gears in that diff before you bought the car - but then again, I'm sure you would have known about that).

 

I dont recall if it made noise before the oil change, and Im sure it is a stock diff. and if the bearings are failing, then LE wont make much difference would it? and if LE did quiet down the whine, wouldn't the bearings still fail sooner or later? or would LE make them last longer? thanks for the reply

 

I wonder if Amsoil is bad for the rear diffs in our car. I ran the same 75w 90 series 2000 in my last diff. I had Amsoil in for 15000 or so miles and it started to whine, then about 3000 miles later I downshifted to pass a car to make an exit and my whole diff blew. The gears broke and cracked the housing totally apart. Had to replace the whole thing. It is not cheap, luckly I found a fairly new 2003 unit at a salvage yard. Whether it was the Amsoil or not I will never use anymore of it in the diff. Best engine oil there is tho IMO. I also have an Exedy clutch in the car so I'm sure that doesn't help matters any.

 

I seriously doubt Amsoil caused your diff failure. However, the pre '04 diffs were weaker and prone to failure - mainly due to poor lubrication. Your clutch may have contributed to the failure ... how much? Who knows.
I recently installed an '04 diff built with 4.57 gears - it makes a lot of noise ... but that comes with the territory (4.57). I use the Series 2000 in the diff and it's a little quiter than the 90W I used to break the gears in with. I'm considering switching to LE to lessen the noise even more.

 

Can anyone help with this?..thanks.