What are my options? Besides taking it to the dealership for warrenty. Is there an aftermarket center diff? I did a search, but I found nothing solid; just some people mentioning about a cusco unit, but nothing conclusive. I thought about getting a solid drive shaft and getting rid of the viscous clutch, how would that work? wouldn't that make the car full-time AWD? Has this been done? what are the downside to doing this? Tell me what you guy think.

 

How did it go bad? What are the symptoms when it goes?

 

How do you know it is broken?

Do not install a solid unit, your car will jump and hop in the corners, particularly slow ones.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ShapeGSX
[B]How do you know it is broken?

I had the car on the lift and saw oil splatters on the body around the viscous unit, so I checked the rubber seal and found a 1cm rip

 

oil leaking

 

I'd think this would be a warranty issue. If the diff failed due to a lack of fluid caused by a failed gasket....

 

warranty . stick it to them

 

That isn't a viscous center diff. Looks more like it might be a carrier bearing? Hard to tell from the picture.

Wasn't there a TSB on carrier bearing leakages?

 

LOL, that's what popped in my mind when looking at the picture. The exhaust is using a V-Band clamp, and the only exhaust I know that uses that is my Vishnu signature exhaust. And there's only 2 areas where they use a V-Band, and since the exhaust pipe in the pic is pretty much straight, it has to be near the back.

 

I f that is on the driveshaft which it appears to be, it is actually called a lobro joint. Basically allows the driveshaft to pivot 360 degrees around this fixed point. It has bearings in it and is filled with grease. Could it have been just overfilled with grease from the factory? The reason I ask, is because a very similar situation occured after I rebiuilt this joint on an AWD DSM

 

Actually, this isn't a vishnu exhaust. I made it myself. The V band clamp that you see is so I can quickly install/uninstall the cat.

 

Will post more pics in 30 mins. so y'all can see where on the car it's located.

 

Is this near the front or rear of the car?

Maybe it's the transfer case yoke?

 

just found out that there are 2 rips

 

it's towards the rear, not by the transfer case