Hi guys,

earlier i posted about my quaife diff having gone bad and that it was leaking, well turns out that wasnt the problem. The diff and the internals are fine but the housing unit is what needs to be replaced. Now mercedes is telling me that you cannot purchase just the housing unit (ive even asked vividracing, ACG and other and all said they cannot purchase that part) and i need to buy the whole factory diff, which is $4650.

Is this true? Can the housing unit not be mended or repaired? And secondly even though i have an aftermarket diff, the housing is still OEM so shouldnt that be covered under warranty?

Any opinions or feedback would be much appreciated as i really have limited options now, thanks again for all the help!

 

What happened to the housing?

 

its cracked and the diff fluid slowly leaks out of it and I have to keep topping it off.

 

Where's the crack? Can you just have it welded?

 

Where is a cracked...output shaft areas?


Should be able to weld that up pretty easily depending on where...


I am assuming you did not hit anything with it...who did the install?


Was it setup properly...?


Sounds odd in that it does not sound like a defect from the factory....

 

I will ask if they can weld, i hope that doesn't affect the integrity of the Diff.

My car is lowered and i dont think i ever bottomed out enough that the diff would have gotten hit or scraped but Sonic did the diff install 3 years ago and its been flawless since then. I am going to Mercedes in the next hour or so, will see what they say, thanks for all the input really appreciate it guys

 

I guess the fact that you mess with the housing by installing the quaife lsd voided somehow the warranty.
See if you can weld that crack or go for an used unit. Check the classified one member was selling a complete OEM housing + fins + heat + sink + quaife. Another member was selling a whole unit as well (non LSD) for 800$. I'm pretty sure you can negotiate that one.
It's much better than your 4k$+ quote.

 

Kingpin-- I got the same quote from my indy shop when I had gear issues that were discovered when I was having my Quaife LSD installed. Same story, Merc would only sell the entire dif unit and would not sale the various parts. I was shocked at the price. My shop went to work and eventually located a totaled C63 in another state and bought that car's unit for me for about 1/3rd of the OEM new unit costs.

I waited until after warranty to do the my Quaife install. Ironically, because my problem was discovered before the install, that cost would have been covered. For you, I agree with abcut-- they can probably void you after the actual install, but who knows. Maybe your dealer will want to do the work. Let us know how this works out.

 

A knowledgeable welder should be able to weld this up. If done properly, the welded area will be as strong as the original. This would be much cheaper than any of the other options mentioned.

 

Hi guys,

Just thought i would update you on whats been going on. So after further inspection on everything, there was no cracks/problems with the housing. I had a second shop take apart the whole diff and check for cracks or any problems and they couldnt find anything. Rather they said the housing is almost 5inch thick of cast iron and almost impossible to crack through normal driving.

My shop upon inspection also said mercedes didnt do the seal job correctly. Back in September, i had my 40k service done at which point mercedes re filled the diff fluid. A few days after that, i noticed drops of fluid on my driveway coming from the back of the car so i knew it was the diff. Taking it back to mercedes, they stated it was a leak in the seals and proceeded to charge me for that job. A month later, the diff was still leaking a lot of fluid and so i took it back to them and they did another seal job free of charge. Then i didnt drive it December or January but noticed there was still leaks happening where the diff is.

The second shop that i had re-do my diff job stated the seals had been installed incorrectly and that the diff fluid was overfilled, resulting in it leaking out of the seals as it had no where to go.

Since doing the second diff job, i havent seen any more leaks on the driveway.

I am now disputing all the money mercedes has charged me in the last 6 months because it all happened because of over filling/ bad seal jobs, so ridiculous.

I have another question for you guys, when you re-do an entire diff job, is there some fluid expected to come out of the seals per the "break in" period? Its been about 2 weeks since i did that last job and though i didnt see any fluid dripping, the diff itself was ever so slightly wet on the right side indicating some fluid had come out but it wasnt even enough to form a drop. Is that normal when you take the whole diff out and re-fill fluid and redo seals?

Mercedes will be doing a second inspection in 2 weeks so hopefully i dont see any more fluid leaking. Thanks for all the help guys!