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Guys,
Someone please help, I have been driving my Z06 on a 100 mile each way round trip every weekend from my main house to my beach house. I notice that when I return and park in the garage I have a stain maybe the size of 3 quarters around in the concrete floor of my garage. When I am parked in the driveway of my other house (no garage) the car is at a slight downward slope (nose lower than rear) I do not notice a stain.
Is it possible the leak is coming out of the vent? Any advice or information would be great. The car is an 03 Z06 with 16k miles that I purchased with 13k miles. I never noticed the leak before when I would drive the car on the weekends, but I was only doing about 30 miles +-.
Take a look at the sides of the differential where the axles attach. It is not unusual to for the seal there to develop a leak (and then to make a general mess around that area). I had to have one of those seals replaced when I bought my '03. Cost me about $500. at the dealership. It was not considered a warranty item.
The diagnosis was the drivers side axel seal. I just had it replaced and picked up today. I didn't drive it far yet to really be certain. It must have been leaking longer than I thought as the diff was about a pint low on fluid!
If it's not leaking all the time than the top side vent is allowing splashed up oil to blow out because it was overfilled either during factory assembly or maintenance by you or the prior owner.
Don't worry about it - believe me you will know if the seal is the problem, don't ask me why I know
High speed driving can cause it to come out the vent. I thought I had an axle seal leak but discovered it was coming out the vent. My seals look a bit dirty but my diff is full. Just had a small amount on the garage floor. Drove it that way for 8 yrs so I know if the seals are leaking its very minimal.
It's a known problem in C5s. The driver side seal on my 2004 went out a couple of years back, but the replaced it with no questions under warranty.
Indeed.... the C5 is notorious for the driver's side differential axle seal to leak. I had to replace mine twice in 7 years. The first time I did it myself and the second time I let a professional do it and also used C6 parts so hopefully it will stick this time.
Clamp a rubber hose on the vent and route it up higher and tie it off. This will keep the vent from leaking. It leaked on both of my Z's, and this fixed it both times.