It was a long and tense drive into work this morning with the radio off I'm sure I must seem nuts to people traffic driving into work at 6am with the roof down lol

 

I think you are bang on there, Steve.

The wrong oil will certainly nacker a diff, but putting the right oil in after it's been run on treacle will also reveal that it's nackered.

Your new noise might be clutch buzz? is it definately coming from the back?

 

I'm not sure how to describe this new noise it's like a guard is loose and vibrating but it was a very deep sound and it did it today a couple of times but only momentarily and no where near as loud as the first time when I thought I was dragging something along the road as the whole car vibrated

 

Sorry offtopic, just a random though :

What was the crack with putting sawdust in engines, think this used to happen years ago to cover engine problems?

Dont think it happens these days?

 

I heard that was mainly done to mask gearbox problems but I think modern gearboxs are to refined for them to last to long if you tried it

 

I was referring to the replacement.

This is a good way to check a diff is OK (and one of the tests I do on any RWD car that I'm testing with a view to buying).

Just because the diff has been changed* doesn't mean to say the replacement is OK. "Diff whine" won't be intermittent though.

* Many years ago the first car I ever bought was from a dealer. It overheated from time to time and I took it back again and again to get it fixed. I was convinced the radiator was blocked. Eventually, the dealer agreed to change the radiator and replaced it (with what looked like a shiny new painted rad). The car still overheated randomly and 3 months later the dealer simply told me to p1ss off. I then tried everything to cure the fault. I changed the head gasket, thermostat, water pump, etc and was at my wit's end. Then, a friend of mine got a job as a delivery driver with a radiator repair company and he suggested he get his "mate in the workshop to look at the radiator for me". Long story short the b*rst*rd dealer had simply painted the radiator and replaced it. A reconditioned one (FOC from my friend luckily) cured the fault. Cars have changed a lot since then, dealers haven't

 

Or banana skins in gearboxes

Times have moved on though and the modern charlatan is more sophisticated no doubt