Since experiencing a puff (nee cloud) of blue smoke on the M40 last Sat and now having a constant buring hydraulic oil smell around the turbo area in addition to a nice whining noise that rise's and falls in line with road speed I have to assume that the front diff may need replacing ..

Therefore can somebody give me an inidcation for the cost of a new front diff, fitted for a STI 4 ???

I know it will be painful, such is the cost of running a scooby..


cheerio

Have you checked your gearbox oil level since the incident. If not, then please do ASAP.

The Gear oil dipstick also doubles as the gearbox breather. In the past, my car built up enough pressure in the gearbox that it poped the breather out and sprayed the downpipe with gearoil... cloads of smoke behing, not nice at all. Anyways, if this is what happened to yours, then, unless you have already checked the level, the problem might be that you are now low on gearbox oil and the entire geartrain is wearing out without any lubrication protection. :eek:

Sounds promising...

Question is, where is said breather/dipstick and can I check it with the wheels on the ground, what level am I looking for and what oil is required..

cheerio

dipstick is located on on the left of the gearbox, in the area between the intercooler and the turbo.

Dipstick has low and high levels marked on it.

You fill the gearbox through the dipstick/breather tube.

Check gearbox oil level when gearbox is level and cold (probably best cold).

If you have been running without sufficiant fluid, you would be wise to, at the very least, drop the remaining fluid, inspect it for evidence of wear particles, and, if its reasonably ok, flush the box before filling with the gearoil you want to keep in it.

Moray

Many thanx for the replies on this on the other thread, I'll be taking a looky at this tonite..

However out of interest I have seen this dipstick before and thought it was the engine oil dipstick, obviously not then !!... So where is the engine oil dipstick ??

cheerio

OK, have looked at the dipstick and this looks like it.. On inspecting the same dipstick immediately after the incident, accidently thinking it was the engine oil dipstick (thats me being a dipstick) I noticed that it was on the F mark and a nice golden brown colour..

Checked it again tonite after driving the car for approx 400miles and it is now barely on the dipstick, black and very "burnt" in smell.. This being checked when cold..

I've booked it into a outfit called MSP in Clapham who I've been very reliably informed are the dogs whoohars when it comes to gearboxes and scooby ones at that.. Hopefully they'll find out where the original fluid went

So what do I do now ?

1. Top up the box and drive it up there - therefore giving MSP the chance to observer the oil - however any **** in the box will be churned thru the gears on the journey..

2. Drain it completely and fill up with fresh fluid - tho MSP wont have a chance to see the fluid but any crap will have been got rid off

In both cases whatever caused the loss on fluid (ongoing I assume as when I checked the dipstick straight after the cloud it was spot on F, now its off the bottom so something must be ongoing) will still mean I'm losing it so the advantage is the box wont be running dry or low on the journey (30miles approx)

Suggestions gladly clung onto...


cheerio