Centre Diff

[twinturboboy]

Hi there my Manual 2001 Legacy GTB E-tunes Centre diff started clicking today, I cant really think of any reason why it would do this, I am the second owner of this car and the previous owner looked after it very well.

I also have treated it like a baby and the car has only done 145,000 kms I checked the gearbox oil today and it was very clean and smelt alright.

I can only think of two reasons why it would do this:

-I lost my licence for three months, so the car had no use for then, maybe it got sticky?

-It has the wrong oil in it, the gear changes have always felt a bit notchy.

If I change the oil, do you think this will fix it?

Any ideas?

Cheers

[gotasuby]

It\'s a very common problem even at low kms

[twinturboboy]

any comments guys?

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Someones had mismatched tyres on there perhaps? Time for a dif swap... theres a how to on here somewhere, to swap in an sti center dif

[twinturboboy]

no one has had mis matched tyres on it, I dont want to replace it unless I have to, do you think changing the oil will help?

[kamineko]

how do you know its the centre thats clicking? sure its not something else like a worn CV joint?

[twinturboboy]

it only did it when warmed up, I just tried it before though and it was warm and its not doing it now??

[Subirex Automotive]

its a long shot of changing the oil, as the center diffs are a sealed unit and takes ages for oil to circulate inside it. the only way to take out the dirty oil from center diffs is to pull it apart and clean the plates. i have done this to my old legacy and it made a huge difference i.e no shudder while turning.

[duddley]

 subirex said:

its a long shot of changing the oil, as the center diffs are a sealed unit and takes ages for oil to circulate inside it. the only way to take out the dirty oil from center diffs is to pull it apart and clean the plates. i have done this to my old legacy and it made a huge difference i.e no shudder while turning.

Was it only doing it when warm or all the time?

[Eight_dollar]

 subirex said:

its a long shot of changing the oil, as the center diffs are a sealed unit and takes ages for oil to circulate inside it. the only way to take out the dirty oil from center diffs is to pull it apart and clean the plates. i have done this to my old legacy and it made a huge difference i.e no shudder while turning.

really ? as vicous centre diff ? - the fluid around those plates is special and is sealed for a reason

[kamineko]

 Eight dollar']

[quote name='subirex said:

its a long shot of changing the oil, as the center diffs are a sealed unit and takes ages for oil to circulate inside it. the only way to take out the dirty oil from center diffs is to pull it apart and clean the plates. i have done this to my old legacy and it made a huge difference i.e no shudder while turning.

/quote]

really ? as vicous centre diff ? - the fluid around those plates is special and is sealed for a reason

thinking the first gen legacy centre might not have been sealed and shared the transmission oil. other members have described this in the past

2nd gen viscous plates are definitely enclosed in a seam welded unit

[DRFVDR]

every Viscous unit I have seen ( Subaru and Toyota ) are fully seam welded enclosed units,non serviceable units, Maybe he was talking about an auto centre clutch pack or a dccd ?

[gazzy2000]

if its the C-diff http://www.clubsub.org.nz/forum/index.php/topic,14965.0.html

[Eight_dollar]

 kamineko']

[quote name='subirex said:

its a long shot of changing the oil, as the center diffs are a sealed unit and takes ages for oil to circulate inside it. the only way to take out the dirty oil from center diffs is to pull it apart and clean the plates. i have done this to my old legacy and it made a huge difference i.e no shudder while turning.

/quote]

really ? as vicous centre diff ? - the fluid around those plates is special and is sealed for a reason

thinking the first gen legacy centre might not have been sealed and shared the transmission oil. other members have described this in the past

2nd gen viscous plates are definitely enclosed in a seam welded unit

1st and 2nd gen - the centre diff gears are lubricated by the box oil but the viscous unit is sealed 100% on each unit

2nd gen are quiet troublesome - the do fail, usualy by breaking the circlip that holds and seals the viscous pack together - usually dropping the circlip into the output drive gears in the transfer drive

[jost]

Try a flush and a refill with genuine oil, may be some crap in the spider gears??? Otherwise i\'d say get hold of a phase 1 (Pre 98) rear end and some gaskets and swap them over. No point replacing it with the original type as it will just fail again in future. cheapest way is to get hold of a box with another issue, pull the rear end off it and scrap the rest, I got my last one from a STi for $100.

[Subirex Automotive]

 We are borg said:

every Viscous unit I have seen ( Subaru and Toyota ) are fully seam welded enclosed units,non serviceable units, Maybe he was talking about an auto centre clutch pack or a dccd ?

not all subaru center diffs are sealed units and yes they can be serviced. there are ways around it. i have serviced heaps of these and never gave me any problem. have done it on bh, bp, and few if the impreza\'s.