ozoz

if money not a problem ... get a LSD ... better if u go real hard in corners ...

mine 2nd diff replacement so far so good ... hopefully last me a few yrs b4 i change to another car

LILBENZ230

I can't understand.. burn-outs in a C230? Mine can't muster the strength to spin its tires ESP or not. Maybe a chirp. Doing a burn-out must require some real abuse.

I have to agree with Glyn. Abuse anything and it WILL break.

LinDenKid

Step on the clutch, put it in 1st .. gas... let the clutch go .. = burn out...

LILBENZ230

Okay. Popping the clutch is definitely abuse. Of course it broke. I'm surprised more stuff hasn't. I can't imagine doing that to any car. I have a 6MT BMW 135i that I'm sure could do a fantastic burn-out if I wanted it to. I'd just rather not abuse it.

LinDenKid

I dont abuse my car everyday, i would say once a month, or maybe less , a gave an accord a beating of a lifetime and had no problems whatsoever , so i had 6 cars since i started driving, ford focus: trans gave up on me with 11k miles, talk about being reliable. Vw Jetta, tranny gave up on me at 102k never abused it, never. Nissan Pathfinder , best truck i ever had , oil change and go , currently has 140k no problems(knock on wood), mitsubishi eclipse , lets not even talk about it , had it for a month had more problems than any car i seen. Honda accord: never had any problems at all , of course i abused it a lot, for about 3 years , no problems. now my benz had it for 3 months abused it lets say 4 times , burn-outs etc , diff goes bad. So what should i tell Mercedes ? a company like Honda desingned a better car than them ? or was it just luck? i guess a lot of people having "bad luck" with their w203 here from what i read. maybe other people have better luck with their cars , and maybe some accords were worst than my benz, just talking about my experiences.

Glyn M Ruck

Just remember the Accord was Front Wheel Drive. It's incapable of putting heavy torque through the diff. It transfers it's weight off the front wheels if you pop the clutch & scrabbles away. Very different to a heavy RWD.

phoenix_iii

Mine looks like it's weeping a bit. I just got the car (02 88k auto), is this something that is servicable (I do see there is a replacable seal)? What are the symptoms prior to failure? I would imagine it would get noisy when dry.

Glyn M Ruck

I presume the pinion seal is weeping? Have it changed so you don't loose oil. Check oil level if you need to leave it a while & watch it. Yes it would make a noise if it had lost it's oil & all would be over - new diff!

phoenix_iii

It doesn't leak to the point of dripping (unless it's 'past' that point), but the PO did bring it in for service a few times to the dealer, I would have imagined they would have caught it. I need to clean the little pumpkin up and see what's going on! Just too excited to get started, I don't have a day off until next week.