[urq] DAMMIT! Center diff casing failure

[Mihnea Cotet]

Thanks for the condolences Steve!

Actually the propshaft is the stock one (at least I think so) with 309.300
kms on it but I didn't feel any vibrations in the driveline before this
happened.... BUT I did hear a slight whining noise ever since I got the car
at 264.000 kms but thought it was more tyre related... now I'd probably
tend to think that it was a bearing that slowly went south...
Oh and one more thing, the center diff's cage (the thing inside that looks
like a football ball) is EMPTY which means that the spider gears are
somewhere on the road it happened on...
Maybe the spider gears' shaft holding pin somehow dislodged itself from
there and that made the spider gears go through the diff's casing....

And as for the Torsen, one of my friends with an S2 had some whining noises
for a while and after replacing one of the gearbox bearings, it became
apparent that the Tor$en went south... who used to tell the Tor$ens were
bulletproof?????


Mihnea, disgusted but soon to have another tranny, which was planned anyway!




At 08:38 1/08/2002 -0700, Buchholz, Steven wrote:
>... let me begin by offering my condolences ... that's got to be frustrating
>to have a major failure like that after completing the project ...
>
>The thing I would say on this is that perhaps you should put a bit more into
>confirming the failure analysis ... it would be devastating to blow another
>tranny because there was something else that casued the first failure.
>
>The one thing that came to my mind was that there may have been some sort of
>issue with the propshaft which precipitated the failure ... are you running
>a stock propshaft?  Could it have become imbalanced or had a failure at the
>u-joint?  Did you notice any vibration in the driveline before the failure?
>
>
>Good luck with bringing it all back together again!  While I am a supporter
>of the Torsen, the center Torsen really does seem to be the weak link in the
>otherwise robust quattro driveline ... that and tranny synchros I suppose
>...
>
>Steve Buchholz
>San Jose, CA (USA)
>... with 6 Torsens around the house ... 4 of which are installed ... :-)
>  >
>  >  I had replaced the tranny oil last summer and the level was
>  >  fine at that
>  >  moemnt, both before and after the oil replacement.... AND
>  >  while I was under
>  >  the car for a few times last week to install the 20vt
>  >  engine, I didn't
>  >  notice any fresh oil on the tranny....
>  >
>  >  After speaking with 2 mechanics, it appears quite clearly
>  >  that either a
>  >  bearing had too much play and went south and forced the
>  >  casing to break, or
>  >  the tranny had a defect from the factory... in either case
>  >  it shouldn't be
>  >  because of the 20vt nor the torque it has...
>  >
>  >  Well, I guess I'm up for a tranny replacement, hopefully I
>  >  have one for
>  >  free waiting for me in a friend's garage and it has only
>  >  110k miles...
>  >
>  >  I think that at the same time I'll have the 200's tranny
>  >  modified with the
>  >  locker center diff and I'll install that one... but that
>  >  would mean a new
>  >  pilot bearing, oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!
>  >
>  >  I'll let you guys know what I'll do with it and what parts could be
>  >  salvaged from the fire it is about to be in :)
>  >
>  >  Later,
>  >
>  >
>  >  Mihnea
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >  At 06:27 1/08/2002 -0400, Martin Pajak wrote:
>  >  >Mihnea,
>  >  >
>  >  >Did you ever check the fluid level in the tranny?
>  >  >The rear output shaft seal likes to leak, after a while
>  >  you end up with an
>  >  >empty tranny.
>  >  >Another possibility is that it had a defect from factory
>  >  but only the 20v
>  >  >turbo made it apparent.
>  >  >I have yet to hear of such failure on the 016.
>  >  >Sorry to hear that.
>  >
>  >  _______________________________________________
>  >  Audifans urq mailing list
>  >  Send posts to: mailto:urq at audifans.com
>  >  Manage your list connection:
>http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/urq
>_______________________________________________
>Audifans urq mailing list
>Send posts to: mailto:urq at audifans.com
>Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/urq