thank goodness you could repair it yourself - LR dealership repair = $7,000

 

I did not repair it myself, it’s still leaking. I just changed the fluid. Going to monitor the drips I leave behind until I can’t take it anymore.

I could probably handle this myself but there are some special tools involved apparently and the bigger issue is something confusing about the pinion bearing pre-load resetting (which -- maybe I’d actually do a better job of it than the dealer)

 

[QUOTE=nashvegas;942972]To follow up on this 13 months later. I changed the rear locking diff fluid today early and glad I did. A couple of findings;

• Old fluid was thick dark black. New fluid is amber. I only have like 30K something miles. Moderately heavy offroad use case though.
• Magnetic drain plug had a small layer of sludge on it (felt like a bit of dark play dough) -- but I could not see any metallic glints or sheen to the oil or that sludge. Moving the sludge between my fingers, no metal bits I could figure out. So clearly there’s some sludge (clutch gak maybe?) at the bottom of the differential ... reason enough maybe to change fluid.
• I used new drain and fill plugs. Neither uses a copper washer but for some reason I bought them when ordering parts.
• It is supposed to take ~1.22-1.24 L of fresh fluid with a wet refill. I put about 1.4 L in before it started coming out the fill hole.

Most annoyingly when I went underneath to start the job, I realized the differential is leaking at this bloody pinion seal they told me wasn’t leaking pre-warranty expiration. Oh well. So basically if you find yours seeping like mine was, it’s probably going to get worse.


That’s the driveshaft going towards front of car on the left there. leaking out the seal around the driveshaft, down, and then moving back with wind I guess...


This is before I touched anything.

Nice job on the service. Simple and necessary. I would get the pinion seal fixed soon. Those diffs do not like low fluid level.

 

A proper Indy can take care of this also. With the proper tools, its not too bad. Also inspect the pinion seal surface for grooves. Would also check if there is any play in the pinion bearing by pushing it up and down. There should be 0 play.

 

Thanks @sarek This isn’t a job you can do with the diff still in the car, is it?

BTW I was at the PCRC chili cook off yesterday at West Coast Overland and this was up on a lift.

 

Yes it can be done in the car. I see you found a proper locker 😃. Bryce and team at WCO are great friends and run a great shop. Im sure they can assist in getting it fixed. I can also send out a non leaking air locker to retrofit!