Lancelot

My car is in the shop this week for major repairs; the differential had been making a whining noise for some time but now also started leaking oil...

Upon disassembling the diff it turns out the main sleevebearing (holding the pignonwheel connected to the driveshaft) has some minor grooving and this causes the barrels to resonate whenever I take my foot off the throttle...

First they are overhauling the diff, replacing the sleeves, bearings and oilgaskets on the in- and outgoing shafts.

Second they will fix the ABS-ASR-BAS errors that have been plagueing me for so long.

I just stopped by the shop this morning to take a few pics...




diff removed


driveshafts tied up


diff housing with new sleeve


pignon wheel before sleeve removal


main planetary gear


planetary gear assembly


cover and some old and new bearings in the background

Air Marshall Eldritch

I just had mine redone a few weeks ago due to a slow leak. The design of the gaskets has been changed. Apparently MB became aware of the flaw, and this is one of those quiet issues that probably should have warranted a TSB (or maybe it did).

Fyi, the labor on a differential overhaul should be 4 hours.

Lancelot

Yeah I know about the around 4 hour labor, however they took it apart on monday and the parts didn't arrive until wednesdaymorning. Then came Xmas (a nationwide two days off overhere, so shop closed) so today they put it all back together. With the ABS problem and passing annual emissions, hopefully it's done late Monday afternoon. I'll keep you guys posted on the ABS!

Hirnbeiss

I ran into one of your countrymen (no, not the Flying Dutchman) today at the beach in Boca Raton - he had shipped his motor home over and is spending a year touring the US. With your quiet differential, maybe you'll get motivated to do the same.
He did complain about the lack of AC, but that's not too big a deal - you can just pick up a window unit at Home Depot and rig it in with duct tape if needed.