Rear diff blown

[ohno06gt]

Noticed the car was shaking around 60mph.  When I turn right and shift the weight to the driver's side it gets worse and the vibration almost goes away when I turn left and shift the weight to the passenger side.   I thought it was a wheel bearing.   Jacked up the car and none of the tires have play. 

With one rear wheel on the ground the other spins freely with a nice crunchy sound coming from the rear diff. 

 

The car is an 06 with a 5eat.  Which differentials are compatible?  

[KZJonny]

You’ve got a few options.

I have one sitting in my parts pile I cannot use, but I really doubt it would be worth paying for the shipping.

You can almost certainly find something local in a scrapyard or car-parts

[ohno06gt]

I don't see the 5eat listed on any of those.   Checking around for some local part outs.  

How bad is the replacement?  Is it possible to remove/install the diff without removing axles from the knuckle? 

 

Edit:  Didn't realize I posted this in classifieds.   If a mod sees this please move to the appropriate forum.

Edited January 5 by ohno06gt
Posted in wrong forum

[Infosecdad]

I might have one available in the near future, but I'm not sure shipping will be worth it for you.

Where are you located?

[ohno06gt]

Located in Northwest ct.

[seanyb505]

Cincinnati if I'm remembering correctly? Mods might want to move thread to the 4th gen section, or the wtb if that's the thread purpose. 

 

Nope not Ohio lol. Did you used to be there? 

Edited January 5 by seanyb505

[ohno06gt]

One wheel shouldn't spin like that with the other on the ground or am I wrong?  

[Infosecdad]

Moved the thread to the 4th Gen section

[KZJonny]

1 hour ago, ohno06gt said:

 

I don't see the 5eat listed on any of those.   Checking around for some local part outs.  

 

Riiiiight. Sorry that post was for 5 speed, as in MT….

I still kind of think that the 05-06 had the same final drive in the ATs. Then a change happened in the later ones.

So, at least those. But also, the diff is the same, you just need to know your final drive and get one from a car with the same FD.

Pretty sure the 05-06 AT was also a 4.11 FD? You can count the teeth to figure it out.. worst case. (XT was 4.44?)

[Infosecdad]

According to cars101.com (https://www.cars101.com/subaru/legacy/legacy2006.html) the FD for the 5EAT is 3.272

Looks like '05-07 5EAT are all the same FD, but in '08 the 3.0R was the same, but the GT is different...

[ohno06gt]

1 minute ago, Infosecdad said:

According to cars101.com (https://www.cars101.com/subaru/legacy/legacy2006.html) the FD for the 5EAT is 3.272

That's what I'm seeing as well.  Trying to see if the diff came in any other cars.

Is one wheel supposed to turn like that with the other on the ground?  

 

[silverton]

12 hours ago, ohno06gt said:

One wheel shouldn't spin like that with the other on the ground or am I wrong?  

That's normal operation for an open diff.

[ohno06gt]

35 minutes ago, silverton said:

That's normal operation for an open 

Ok what about that crunchy sound when I spin it?  Is it possible that the wheel bearing is shot but I'm not getting any play because the brakes are holding it in place? 

[silverton]

It's very difficult to determine where the sound is coming from in the video, sounds like you're just rolling over dead leaves.  It could be the wheel bearing, it may not be at a failure point where there is play you can feel by grabbing at 12/6.  Ideally you'd put it on a lift and run it at ~40mph to feel for vibration in the coil springs.

[Max Capacity]

Yes, the diff falls forward on your jack, and the axles will pop out. No need to remove them from the hub. Also, make sure to remove the fill plug before you install the new diff. I learned the hard way. The PO, tighten the fill plug so tight, I had to remove the just installed used diff to remove the cover so a machine shop could get the fill plug out. Check the drain plug too. 

[All_talk]

Diff failures on these cars are pretty rare, but rear wheel bearing failures are Very common, I would be sure of you diagnosis before going through the work of swapping the diff.

I have changed out noisy wheel bearings on many different cars and could almost never feel movement at the wheel. Even running the car on a lift/stands rarely reveals the noise because the bearings have no weight on them. Road test is the best way, and that can be tricky. I can normally sense front to rear fairly quickly, but left to right is harder to sort out (specially in the rear). But that is less important because I would always replace both sides anyway.

With one wheel in the air and the trans in park (driveline locked), the raised wheel should not turn. With both wheels off the ground and the car in park the wheels should spin opposite of each other.

 

[ohno06gt]

5 hours ago, All_talk said:

With one wheel in the air and the trans in park (driveline locked), the raised wheel should not turn. With both wheels off the ground and the car in park the wheels should spin opposite of each other.

 

In that situation the raised wheel turns freely with a crunchy sound coming from the rear diff/axle stub as seen in the video in the first post. 

Another forum member stated that is normal operation for an open diff.

[Max Capacity]

If you ride on the back seat, while the drive is being driven, you can hear a lot from back there. Have someone drive the car around a flyover interchange on a highway, as the car's weight shifts going around the big curve you can hear the bearing sing if its going bad. 

[All_talk]

1 hour ago, ohno06gt said:

In that situation the raised wheel turns freely with a crunchy sound coming from the rear diff/axle stub as seen in the video in the first post. 

Another forum member stated that is normal operation for an open diff.

But is the driveline turning? I'm not sure if the 4EAT locks the driveline like a RWD car does when the trans is in park. If the drive line is turning then yes, that is normal for an open diff.