F430 Diff Noise
Discussion
Shortly after purchasing my F430 I started to notice a whine/hum. At 60-80mph it’s at its worse and to me seems to be diff whine. It’s the same in any gear, the noise is not specific to any gear. I’m fairly handy with a set of spanners and have had the differentials out on previous transaxle cars in the past, for various reasons. This was my initial thourght was to take the drive shaft off and remove the circular cover on the side of the diff to take the crown wheel out and see if I could check the bearings or see anything that could possibly by the culprit. However I’m slightly nervous with it being an F1 gearbox car about potentially disturbing something, I don’t want to upset any pre-loads that may be set or find I need to bleed the e-diff as I don’t have the software to do it. Is it possible to take the crown wheel off and associated shaft with bearings on etc out of the diff casing whilst the diff is in the car or does the entire diff and gearbox need to be removed to do this. Also can the inspection panel on the side of the diff be removed without removing the hydraulic pipes? Just thinking of ways that mean I don’t have to bleed the system? If this is not going to be possible does anyone know of any places that I could take the diff to, to have the diff inspected and potentially repaired.
Many thanks
Sam
Many thanks
Sam
samastonlongley said:
Not that I’m aware off? I’ve changed the gearbox oil and as far as I’m aware the gearbox and diff are a combined system?
Was the noise present before the oil change? If not that may be your issue - as you say a full bleed requires an SD. They are also very sensitive to the specific oil used. Otherwise what about CV joints - inners and outers on the half shafts...?Yes the noise was there before.. I changed the oil hoping that may cure it or make it better but it didn’t make much difference. I just replaced the oil with what it recommends in the manual. I noticed though with one of the drive shaft disconnected, when I get a bar behind the drive shaft coupling on the gearbox there seems to be some float/play and I can move it, not sure if this is normal given the design of the diff or if that’s the problem..
If you had movement on the drivers side flange its normal. There shouldn’t be any in the passenger side as that’s the bearing that supports the bulk of the ediff. If you remove the diff You can uncouple the hydraulic lines under the drivers side rear lights, then you won’t have to bleed it. If you remove the two pipes off of the side of the ediff it will require bleeding otherwise. You do not need an as unit to renew gearbox oil. If I were you I’d take it to someone who possesses a set of chassis ears to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. As has already been suggested it’s more likely to be a wheel bearing than a diff noise
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 13:14
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 13:17
Cerberaherts said:
If you had movement on the drivers side flange its normal. There shouldn’t be any in the passenger side as that’s the bearing that supports the bulk of the ediff. If you remove the diff You can uncouple the hydraulic lines under the drivers side rear lights, then you won’t have to bleed it. If you remove the two pipes off of the side of the ediff it will require bleeding otherwise. You do not need an as unit to renew gearbox oil. If I were you I’d take it to someone who possesses a set of chassis ears to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. As has already been suggested it’s more likely to be a wheel bearing than a diff noise
Thanks for that info that’s given me a lot of useful information! I’m sure I’ve got in and out play on the passengers side of the diff, same side as the removable cover. I’ll check again once I’m home from work but it’s only play in and out on the drive shaft flange, it’s not up and down.. Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 13:14
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 13:17
I’ve thought about wheel bearing before but can’t feel anything with the car jacked up and flexing the wheel at 3 and 9/ 12 and 6. Perhaps it could be wheel bearings but not enough to feel when moving the road wheel in the air.
As I’ve got all the wheels of and the exhaust off at the moment I’ll inspect the differential to see if I can see any bearing wear and if I can’t see anything I’ll have to then look into possibly changing the wheel bearings, struggling to think what else it could be. Thanks again for the help
This is a pic of the bearing in the casing, although this is a 360 ‘box I currently have apart, the location is the same. Usually if the diff bearings are worn sufficiently to create a noise, it’s pretty horrific as the pinion gear (pictured lowest point in the pic) gets trashed. You’d also have some pretty nasty debris in the gear oil by this point. I’ve changed many wheel bearings on them for noise, and very often little or no play is evident. If you put the rear of the car securely in axle stands or on a lift, you can run it up through the gears while stationary (with the ASR off) and have a second person try to locate the source of the noise
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 18:25
Edited by Cerberaherts on Thursday 9th January 18:28
Got the diff removed this evening. Fairly sure I’ve found the cause. All the bearings seems absolutely sound and aren’t causing any noise and are smooth to turn. I’m fairly sure the noise is caused by the putting on the crown wheel. The question is how bad do people think it is? Having not had any experience with wear on crown wheels before I’m unsure if this is a considerable amount of wear or if this is fairly normal given the 50k miles the car has covered. See attached pictures. I was wondering if running slightly thicker oil might help on the noise front if I decided to put the diff back in as is? Many thanks for all the help and advice in previous posts.
samastonlongley said:
Got the diff removed this evening. Fairly sure I’ve found the cause. All the bearings seems absolutely sound and aren’t causing any noise and are smooth to turn. I’m fairly sure the noise is caused by the putting on the crown wheel. The question is how bad do people think it is? Having not had any experience with wear on crown wheels before I’m unsure if this is a considerable amount of wear or if this is fairly normal given the 50k miles the car has covered. See attached pictures. I was wondering if running slightly thicker oil might help on the noise front if I decided to put the diff back in as is? Many thanks for all the help and advice in previous posts.
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