Hi all - been ages since I posted here.

Differential has gone again - 33 thousand miles, and my S is in need of its fifth diff since new. The car has been at the dealers for 5 days now - and they admitted that they are 'baffled'. It's not under warranty anymore, but HondaUK have said it shouldn't end up costing me anything, as it was under warranty when I reported the problem on the last two occasions, and obviously hasn't been corrected.

Getting seriously frustrated with Honda now - this diff situation has been a constant problem since I bought the car 15 months ago, and they still haven't sorted it out. Any suggestions as to what I should say to HondaUK when I phone them on Monday? Or maybe I should write to them, to express my dissatisfaction?

 

Something is seriously wrong here. I am not technical about these things but it must either be some other problem which is causing this or the driver. I don't know how you drive and will therefore say it is the former. What that is however I don't know but I have read about it on this site before so please try the search.

 

Its one of a number of things:

Your driving
The dealer not fitting the replacements properly
An unbalanced propshaft
Or something wrong with the rear suspension mountings resulting in misalligned driveshafts putting stress on the diff.

Has the car ever been rear ended and rebuit or had a serious side impact that broke the rear suspension ?

The diff is manufactured by Torsen - they have a website and you can e-mail technical queries to them (I did when I put the space saver on the rear - they replied in a couple of days).

 

Stupid and obvious question....but what type of oil has the dealer been using in this diff (its not unknown for them to use the wrong oil)?

 

that could be a very good question to ask them without raising suspicion just yet.

 

Quite a simple test would be to visit the workshop and touch a part of the dismantled diff unit to get some oil on your finger - if it doesn't smell of sulphur I would be very suspicious that its not the right oil. In any case, when you do get a new diff fitted I would recommend changing the oil yourself (or get a specialist to do this) before you drive the car just for peace of mind. (The diff has to have "hypoy" oil - there are a lot of threads on this site - including ones about dealers that have used "dual pump fluid" instead).

 

To be honest, I can't see how a driver on their own can knacker 5 diffs in 33000 miles. Unless the engines hard tuned, there's strange wheels on the real and it's been tracked. A lot. Here's hoping you get a final resolution this time.

 

IMO its more likely to be a dealer induced fault and most likely to be the wrong oil used - be interesting to know the outcome

 

supply your own diff oil and see if it happens again

 

Also get an extended warranty in place. Is it the same dealer who has fitted the diff's? If it is ask Honda UK to get it done somewhere else and see how that pans out. If it isn't the oil which is the cause of this there is something very wrong and I will put a tenner on it and say that it isn't the diff themselves but something else, along the lines suggested by douglasr or your driving. The latter would IMO only be an issue if you launch the car in high revs all the time etc but to go through 5 in 33k is way too many.