I have a small puddle in my Garage from my Corvette, It looks like oil and seems to be coming from the differential. I have an appointment to take it in Tuesday morning. I really don't want to leave my car there, I don't ever leave this Car anywhere, I stand over the top of them when they change the oil. any ideas?

Richard

 

My condolences. My biggest fear with this car is taking it in for service. Maybe you should get some recommendations on a dealer that someone has had success with for this type of work or verify the dealer you are going to has good techs. Forum would be a good source of this information.

 

Thats not a good thing at all..whatever you do, don't drive it if at all possible. This will keep your differential from frying. If it is just a bad seal at the shafts, then those can be replaced pretty easily and the only cost around 10.00 to 20.00 each. Good luck brotha!!

 

Check out this topic:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=265937

 

Thanks Guys,
I am going to take pictures and show them that there is not one scratch on the car, and I expect to get it back in the same condition. I will also be asking for a certified tech only on this car. What gets me is that the car only has 7000 miles on it :(

 

I have a leak that comes and goes. It does not leak at all when the weather is cool and on occasion in hot weather. I have come to the conclusion that much of the problem with C5 rear axles has to do with the pressure relief valve on the driver side top of the differential. It does not always relieve the pressure properly and with heat expansion of the fluid and air in the differential fluid is forced around the seals. I do not worry about it as the leak is seldom & I just clean it up and watch the fluid levels.

I have also found that a change in the fluid will result in no leaks for a long period of time. I changed the fluid last year before two trips of in excess of 3,000 miles and nary a leak.

Those that have had the problem fixed seem to end up seeing the same problem re-occur. My 2 cents.

 

C5 in 2002:

Some of us have had this problem. It ususlly the left half shaft seal. I've had this problem fixed twice at my friendly Chrvrolet dealer under warranty, and they did it both times in one day with NO damage to the car. :) :)

GM has redesigned these seals and the new version, I was told , should be available latter this year for retrofit, if your seals are leaking. The new seal should be part of the new 2003 models. Get it fixed, it's no big deal, and the amount that may have dripped out will not cause any reduced lubrication problems for you, so go ahead and drive it to the dealer and get it fixed. :cool:

 

Richard:

Before they start replacing seals and re-routing the breather tube on the diferential, have them check the fluid level and make sure it's not over-filled!! If you've had your car in for service (oil change, etc.) lately, chances are the service technician topped-off the fluids and may have over-filled the rear end. If the dealer's service department will call the factory technical support line, they will instruct them on how much fluid to remove from the differential in order to keep it from burping out of the vent tube.

I had may car in for the diffenential leak on 5 different occasions. They replaced the left axle seal twice, the left half-shaft twice, the left outer CV boot (they ripped it when they replaced the half-shaft the first time), the left side differential cover o-ring, and re-routed the breather tube twice before they figured out that the differential just had too much fluid in it!

DUH! :conehead

Hopefully that's all that need to be done!
Good luck!
:D

 

I took mine in for the same problem, it was leaking fluid from the rear-end. They ended up replacing one of the covers in the rear and like 4 of the seals. They told me the cover was heavily pitted from the casting process and it wouldn't seal properly. I've had the car back for about a week and a half and it hasn't leaked one single drop so far.

As much as it sucks, I'm glad I'm not the only one it happened to. :(

 

I'll add my story into the mix here:

My 98 did not leak a drop. At 30K miles, I performed the fluid swap myself (very easy procedure, BTW). After the first 'spirited drive' after the change, I had a small leak under the drain plug!

I re-checked the fill level and it was perfect.

I simply backed the drain plug up a few turns, re-cleaned the gasket area, and re-torqued it.

Not a drop since then. It's been 300+ miles.

Hope this helps. Good luck,

 

Look at the left side (driver's side) diff cover. I'll bet this is the source of the leak. This has been an on going problem since 1997.

WHY am I not surprised GM hasn't addressed this problem by now?

Tom

 

Mine leaked on the left side also. The dealer wanted to change the o-ring.
I took it home and removed the fill plug and it was way over filled. Hasn't leaked since I set it to proper level. It was blowing diff fluid out of the breather and the breather is on top left. I'll bet a lot these apparent leaks are just over filled.

-BlackJack :flag

 

As far as my experience goes, here some observations...

At first my differential was overfilled, as many other forum members
reported, too. This may have added to the oil coming out, but there
definitely is a problem with the seal on the left side. Even with proper
oil level and after "non spirited driving" (and having everything cleaned
before) I found some oil, coming from around the left axel seal area
and, from time to time, dropping from the bolt below.

There also seems to be a problem with the vent. Oil sprays out of the
tube while some "spirited driving", which may be considered as normal.
But this should not happen with a differential getting warm only a little.
When I opened the bolt to check the oil level afterwards, I often heard
some pressure compensation, even after some days while the car was
standing in the garage. This depends on the temperature changes,
but of course it shows that the vent does not work properly, at least
sometimes.

In worst case both may work together: the vent does not release the
pressure properly and the left axle seal seems to be the next weak point,
where oil can be pressed out.

I had the seal replaced twice, last time they followed the procedure using
the anaerobic sealer (GM #105942) and so on. This seemed to help some
miles more. Now, after a joyful ride on the German Autobahn ;) , I found
oil around and below the axle seal "as usual" and some drops on the
ground, again... :mad

And now the good news :D ...

Part I (experiences from my dealer and other C5 owners): the oil level
(probably) will never become critical, if the maintenance intervals are kept.
I was told that the permitted range reaches down to ~1.0 cm below "full".
Actually the most loss I ever experienced on mine was ~0.2 cm for 10k
miles driving, which is hard to measure anyhow!

Part II: there is a new seal design in the pipe, available latest at the end
of this year. (This was already posted by someone else.)

PS and to GM: Please take care of the breather pipe, as well!


:seeya




[Modified by Vmax, 7:37 AM 4/10/2002]

 

I feel your pain. Mine was leaking when I got home from the NCM after Delivery! With only 1500 miles! :crazy: They had to remove and replace the the o-ring and the right axle seal, as mine was leaking from the right. The tech also used the anaerobic sealer previously mentioned! Good stuff! And the tech was cool enough to let me hang around and watch him like a hawk. Even was nice enough to answer my questions.

Take a look under your back end on the car and see which sides muffler looks worse. Whichever side it is, that is where you leak most likely will be! :eek:


[Modified by BlueC5Kitten, 9:00 AM 4/10/2002]