3.2 V6 Blown Diffs

Guys, I was one of the first to blow a differential. Since then I was ridiculed because apparently I was abusive to the car etc etc. Well I didn't! Slowly my prediction has come true, unfortunately.
Many of you idiots out there that doubted me, I hate to say, I told you so!
Anyway, we have allot of information on the following forum and many of us in Australia will help as much as we can.

http://www.aus-cartalk.com/viewforum.php?f=46

We have much information that can help people in this situation and I my self would be only glad to help.

From what I can see, we have had approximately 25-30 Diff failures that we know of in 147 GTA's out of about 140-150 sold here in Aus.

P.S. Golf R32 is brilliant so far. 21,000km!

Originally Posted by steve910

i bought it privately... thanks alot for the details of max, but the bloke who's doing the work actually started work today so the car is in pieces at the moment i think. just a bit late. i'll definitely use max in future. i'm using sydney city alfa at the moment simply because that was where the car was towed to when it died and they started running diagnostics straight away.

hopefully it won't cost too much... thankfully i can afford the cost whatever it ends up as, and dad is a lawyer so i'm taking alteco to small claims if they refuse to cover it. the previous owner never took the car to the redline and has given me a sworn affidavit on that, as well as the driving history pulled out of the computer, showing the car was only driven hard by the first owner, who only had it for 6 months...

hopefully alteco will take a "good-will" approach with the car and fix it.

i'll join those forums as soon as i can, but at the moment the page won't even load for me.
thanks for the PMs,
steve

They will probably just put the same diff back in and then it will happen again.

I'm still thinking whether I should use Redline gearbox oil(recommanded by DC) for my Q2 installation or original Tutela Matryx (dealer still recommanded). Dealer said I will have warranty for the installation if I stick with original oil.

Hello,
I have just replaced the diff on my 156GTA (86.000km) with a Q2. I made it to enhance the driving of my car as I noticed that the clutch made problems. The mec said to me that the original diff would have blown in some time because the gearbox lost oil at the siedend and the level of oil was too low.

So be careful with the level of the oil and another thing seems to be important: Don't accelerate strongly with full lock applied.

Originally Posted by luckyex

The mec said to me that the original diff would have blown in some time because the gearbox lost oil at the sied end and the level of oil was too low.

Good point.
There is no scheduled change point for the gear oil and many have probably never had the gearoil level checked.

Every used Alfa I've ever bough had low(ish) gear oil when i got it.. Definitely worth checking.

Can we check it ourselves like if there is a dipstick or something?

there might be a dipstick, in fact I believe there is. But boxes that are not equipped with a dipstick get filled to the brim (the filler cap is somewhere on the side in that case, at just the correct height)

hey all,
me again. had a look at the diff today. the cogs are pretty chewed up and apparently the big one that connects the diff to the gearbox has a small chip in it - out of one of the teeth i think. the diff casing is intact however.

anybody in australia who can give me a brief rundown on what they think it's going to cost/how long it's going to take to get it fixed..?
thanks,
steve

steve call max oddi on 02 9552 2052 he is the only one I would trust not to extort you based on this misfortune.

If alfa say they won't cover it, i'll get a quote from the place i'm with, and i'll look around for quotes, particularly from max, but if i am going to take legal action i think it's best to stick with the official alfa people..

any ideas on how long this sort of thing will take?

how many km's has your car travelled, and also when was it first registered ?

just trying to gauge the age of the vehicle . . .

Originally Posted by steve910

any ideas on how long this sort of thing will take?

sorry to hear of the problem steve. i'd be devastated.

'how long' would depend on many things:
*when the service department can accept the booking
*how much requires inspection and what tests are required: eg: xray testing of bell housing to check for cracks, inspection of gearbox (usually not essential cos diff is kinda in a separate chamber), etc
*parts arrival: depends if it's all in stock in the sydney warehouse, or if requires ordering from italy
*what needs replacing: a damaged crown (main, big) gear on the diff might mean a damaged gearbox pinion gear, and replacing that would be a far more major job

...so, could be 1 week's work if all is available and goes smoothly, as expected. if parts are required, special crack testings, and gearbox needs overhaul, could take anywhere from 2~8 weeks, subject to parts availability. i presume a 'long' wait would only occur if parts are required from italy.

if possibly, you should work together with the repairer, and go along with a digital camera and take photos, for your own reference, especially if going to the tribunal.

the car's travelled 33000kms overall and was first registered in august 2004.

apparently the first owner drove it quite hard though. it's spent a total of 267 seconds in the red zone (damn. wish i'd known that before i bought the thing). the second owner owned the car from december 04 and drove the thing gently.. he has a wife and family etc and is 35, so he's not a hoon in any way..

umm i think the diff was pretty badly screwed, but apart from the big one that sticks out from the bottom of the gearbox, which had a small chip in it the gearbox was fine. i wish i knew the name of all of the gears in it....

All this business about the rev limiter and the diff is a complete load of nonsense and is just being used disingenously by Alfa as an underhanded "scare and confuse" tactic..

267s in the red zone - um, so what??
The red zone starts at 7000 rpm, changing up before the limiter at 7200. It wouldn't take all that many enthusiastic blats do get that!
Say 0.3 to 0.5s in the red zone every time you change gear flat out.

I just did a quick calc on the number of upshifts for my local circuit and reckon for a single track day there are 750 up-shifts that would probably log close to 267s in the red zone on a single day.
Big deal.
Many cars run with extended limiters typically 7650, 7800.

I'm sure with a few extended windy country road blats you could log 267s over time no problem.
These engines are pretty tough - you don't hear of many engine related failures on here of standard GTAs, many of whom are driven very hard indeed.


I think in any case the real stress on the diff would be at the max torque area of the engines torque/power curve and not the peak rpm where torque especially has tailed off, so the time spent in the red zone is a red herring.. Its just being used to fob you off.

Potentially they might argue that the action of the limiter itself is so harsh that it might cause stress on the diff, I firstly don't think that is the case that it is that harsh but secondly the diff failures that people are reporting are not in general based on that style of driving.
Also if they didn't design the diff to be strong enough to stand hitting the limiter a few times then thats also indefensible.

Are these guys for real with that attitude!

Originally Posted by steve910

apparently the first owner drove it quite
hard though. it's spent a total of 267 seconds in the red zone (damn. wish i'd known that before i bought the thing).

Trailbraker,

Have you heard of any 3.2's having diff problems in Ireland?

Cheers!

A possible lead; i asked my garage about this issue and they think there may be a recall on some cars due to a leaking seal on the diff; this allows the oil to get too low, so of course can lead to the failure. They are looking up the records to see what they can tell me. In the meantime it seems sensible to check the level of the gear oil and top up if necessary, and as it is never due to be changed in services, perhaps replace it with fresh oil.