A couple weeks ago as I was driving to work my rear end took a crap on me while cruising along at a constant speed. I figured that with the history of the car (before I got it) that wear and tear was to blame.

Fast forward to today: The used 35k mile rear end that I got was installed by the shop and they went to take it for a drive to check that it was running well. The shop called to inform me that as they were about to turn onto the road that they are located on there was a loud bang and the rear wheels locked up. They had to tow it down the road to get it back to the shop. They're currently in the process of opening it up to find out what the hell happened.

So here's my question- Is there anything that you guys can think of off hand that would be putting a ton of stress on that rear end to make it fail twice within 10 miles of drive distance? Seems that it would have to be something fairly significant to kill it so quickly. Could an issue with the transfer case cause the driveshaft to not rotate fast enough to keep up with the rate the back wheels are moving at? I know I need new tires, the fronts are a worn more than the rears. The first thing I was going to do when I got it home today was put on the new wheels and tires. But to fail in less than 5 or so miles? That can't be the tires...

I'm just aggravated as hell about the whole situation. Any advice would help, thanks!

 

QUICK UPDATE

They got it up on the lift and checked out the rear end. It was fine! They then pulled out the drain plug for the transfer case and hardly any fluid came out along with some metal shavings.

So it looks like the TC needs to be replaced now... FML

 

^ so you didnt have any fluid in the tcase?

 

Where did the fluid go in your tcase? How long have you been driving it since you bought it? The tcase will not last long with very little fluid. I'm gonna go with the shop drained the fluid just to get more business out of you. *joking*


So the rear went and so did the tc. Hopefully you didnt pay alot for this evo.

 

From what they said there wasn't much. But it was filled with fluid when I had a seal replaced on it in May.

 

No acd faults?

 

I've had it since January, it's been my daily with about 80 miles a day put on it on work days. Got it for about 13K. I knew it was gonna need some work, just didn't think major drivetrain components would choose to crap out at the same time.

 

It's had a 82 code that comes and goes. I've been wanting to replace the pump but haven't gotten to it yet. From what I've gathered ACD pump failure just defaults the center diff to behave as an open diff.

 

Did the shop who replaced the seal do it the right way? (Its not just drain, fill, go). The right way to fill it is to fill it put it on the lift and drive it for a bit and repeat that a few times.

 

I don't know, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't

 

Went through the same thing. I questioned the shop about it but of course they said they filled it up right. Nothing you can really do to prove it. Only you can do is ask them how they did it. If they tell on themselves then you can show them how they did it wrong and hope they did the right thing.

 

but i dont think the outcome from not doing that can be this severe can it? don't most shops, even the high performance ones, just stuff it as full as possible until its pouring back out and then close it up? i've done t-case on my own and i've tried filling it, driving around, and then when i went to refill it it was still dribbling out as i opened it

 

ouch. these shops you take your car to, are they EVO/awd shops or do they pretty much work on everything?

 

The transfercase doesnt hold much fluid, .75qts iirc.
Are you sure your first rear diff was damaged and it wasnt your transfercase all along?

 

Yes, I think the main thing is that when your doing this that the transfercase, transmission, or rear diff is as level as possible when you are filling it up.

I have topped it off and closed the fill plug quickly and went off my way. I have also done it with driving it around and lifting it back up and re checking. Both times it has taken the same amount of fluid, and everytime I have rechecked it the levels have been fine and didnt need to top off more. Its not a bad idea to drive around and recheck, but more importantly is to make sure the vehicle is level and you have put in the amount that mitsu says is capacity.