Got a wet rearend

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

Wrestled the keys from my wife and spent some quality time with the touring today.

And spotted an oil spot.....the rearend output seal are leaking, checked the oil level and it's still full, so I will fix it next weekend.

Any tricks the get that clip out?

[indierthanthou]

does someone need a fresh diaper?

[Alexlind123]

Mine is wet too, but not incontinent. It just oozes i guess, it never drips...

[John B.]

Wrestled the keys from my wife and spent some quality time with the touring today.

And spotted an oil spot.....the rearend output seal are leaking, checked the oil level and it's still full, so I will fix it next weekend.

Any tricks the get that clip out?

I'd worry more about getting the G/D allen bolts out first. Both output seals are leaking on our 95 Touring & so far I've only gotten 2 of the bolts loose. First weekend after nothing budged I soaked the exposed threaded ends with PB blaster, checked the fluid & gave it back to the wife to drive. Yesterday I got 2 bolts loose but that was it. This was with the car up on a lift using a 3' breaker tube over a 1/2" ratchet. Soaked them again & will try again next Saturday. With the diff mount frame in the way I don't see how you can even get a good bite on the heads with vise grips. I did this same job on my 535i several years ago with no problems but these suckers are on there! Normally I'd bring out the gas torch but heating that area does not seem like a good idea. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[ryan roopnarine]

perhaps if you stopped eating food with olestra in it?

[John B.]

perhaps if you stopped eating food with olestra in it?

Guess I missed the joke. Was that what you consider a helpful response?

[DanDombrowski]

Well John,

I just went through all of this not too long ago, I ended up stripping one of the heads out and had to cut it out with a dremel. It SUCKED. By first advice is to be patient with them, and second was lots of PB blaster.

What I found to be the most effective way of removing the ones I HADN'T stripped was to make your second lever arm of the head to the ratchet as short as possible. If you have lots of extensions on there, the allen head likes to spiral its way out of the bolt, and strips the corners of the bolt.

What worked best for me, believe it or not, was a regular 8mm allen key directly attached to a 3/8" ratchet (rather than a 1/2" ratchet with an adapter), and put a cheater bar on the ratchet. Try to keep the ratchet head as straight as possible.

I had the vice grips suggested to me, but I was not able to get that to work.

[ryan roopnarine]

Guess I missed the joke. Was that what you consider a helpful response?

nope. my rear end is only seeping, i've never even seen a rear end that is dripping as much to fall on the ground and leave a telltale, and i didn't have anything to add that could help in that situation. bob makes novelty question titles, i make novelty responses to bump the question up back to the top of the page.

edit--let me qualify that. i'm too young to have ever been around that much rwd in my life. i've never heard/seen of a rear end that was dripping so much as to leave a tell tale and not be howling to high hell inside the car--ie, he's having some kind of catastrophic, developed yesterday, will drain out by tomorrow seal leak--wouldn't know what to say to him about what could cause that.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

for those hex bolts, or will I just destroy them

[John B.]

for those hex bolts, or will I just destroy them


It would have to be a 90* impact as there's no room for a conventional one. If you have the allen bit fully seated & in straight it shouldn't be any worse then using a ratchet unless someone has been in there before you and they are already buggered. You may get lucky & they come out no problem; my 535i was like that. Getting the ring clip out is no big deal so once the bolts are out you are home free.

[Mr Project]

I pulled mine using my 'normal' 1/2" drive impact wrench. Not sure what you mean by no room for it....although the exhaust probably wasn't installed at that phase of the project. I just used the impact to break the allen bolts loose.

The side seals are easy to replace, the 'hubs' just pop out. For the input seal, you'll probably need a thin-wall 30mm socket, most regular 30mm sockets won't fit down inside the recession on the flange.

I'm not sure if you'd actually have to take the diff down to replace the seals...might be able to leave it in place once you have the axles and input flange off, not sure if that would be easier or harder overall. Obviously you'd have to drop it out if you want to do the rear cover seal.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

everything else was nice and dry.

kind of looks like the was coming on for a while, since theres lots of dirt stuck the the oily areas

[632 Regal]

bust them buggers loose with vice grips them apply the allen wrenches, Sal didnt have any problem after he busted them loose on my swap. One was stripped by a previous mechanic but a no brainer once they were loose. I did have to tighten the stripped one with vice grips when done.

[John B.]

I pulled mine using my 'normal' 1/2" drive impact wrench. Not sure what you mean by no room for it....although the exhaust probably wasn't installed at that phase of the project. I just used the impact to break the allen bolts loose.


Not having the exhaust pipes in the way on the left would make that side of the job much easier. My impact is almost 3" wide & it didn't look like I could get a straight shot into the allen head even with the impact up against the axle. I'll check it out when I make the next attempt.