Differentials on 4.5's

[Alastairm]

Chaps, just spent a lot of money getting my leaking diff fixed by a good local independent TVR specialist. When i picked it up it was done dry under the car, however 3 days and 200 miles later i look again and there is oil on the rear exhaust and all over the diff. Has anyone else experienced this problem after just having it fixed (new gaskets , seals and breathers fitted etc) I also have a warrenty for the car which seems to be utterly useless unless the engine blows up!!!

[leszekg]

Not with my Cerbera, but had a similar problem with my Excel. Turned out to be a hairline fracture in the diff case - difficult to spot. If it's small amounts of oil leaking then it could be this.

[johnmckenzie]

I've had this occur too. The factory and 2 dealers have all told me that it's caused by driving too fast on a cold diff. The synthetic oil used is very thick (140 grade I believe) and when its cold its more like treacle. If you drive too fast, the rotational speed of the diff is such that it picks up the oil and throws it to the top of the diff housing and ultimately, some gets thrown out of the breather. Also, dealers have a consistent habit of overfilling the diff at service or repair and this will cause the excess to be thrown out at higher speeds too. I believe early Cerbera's also had a filling plug set too high in the casing which meant that filling to the level of the plug (normal practice) shoved in too much oil. Revised instructions were given to dealers to fill the diff with a set volume to avoid the problem but I don't know how many take that much trouble.
My advice is to clean up the oil and monitor it carefully over the next few weeks, taking care to warm up the diff before going bonkers (say over 80mph). My guess is that you'll find no problem.

john

[steve blake]

When i first got my Chim 450 had oil leaking from diff.Has now stopped so i think that the comments about them being overfilled at service sounds about right as mine had just had 1.