Hello!

Could some one please advice some tips why my differential is leaking. I have buyed new Reconditioned diff and installed it correctly to lr2. There is no leaks on any gaskets, the leak is under of differential and there was tiny 1-2mm hole bottom of diff and lr seller told me that they have never seen suchlike of drill / hole under differential, but i have used some chemical metallic padding to fill the 1-2 mm hole. The leak is comming under 4k007, i dont want to drop the differential again to search the leak, but this is realy wierd? here is photo of the hole which i have padded, is it possible that its crackked somehow or what the hell?
The oil is differential oil, not haldex oil because the oil is sticky, and haldex isnt stickky

There isnt comming anymore on the hole, because i have filled it totaly whit padding, but it comes still somewere under the 4k007, and there should not be anything gaskets....

kindly regards jonny kurki from finland

images
http://postimg.org/image/az3fgywmt/
http://postimg.org/image/oj61p6x25/

here is some photos of changing the differential
http://postimg.org/gallery/alftzc46/d8aaafcb/

Last edited by j00ppis on 9th Jun 2013 1:39 pm. Edited 2 times in total

It is definitely a drilled hole is it? and not a casting fault? some alloy castings can have blow holes/defects in them maybe just under the surface, and when a casting is reused such as in a refurbishment the casting cleaning process which can be some type of media blasting can remove some material to show defects just under the surface which might not have been visible before.
Your casting looks like its been cleaned up? was it a Land Rover exchange item?

Mona Geeza wrote:

It is definitely a drilled hole is it? and not a casting fault? some alloy castings can have blow holes/defects in them maybe just under the surface, and when a casting is reused such as in a refurbishment the casting cleaning process which can be some type of media blasting can remove some material to show defects just under the surface which might not have been visible before.
Your casting looks like its been cleaned up? was it a Land Rover exchange item?

Hopefully someone here will be able to look under theirs and see if theirs has a similar hole and let you know.
I dont have my FL anymore or I would have looked myself.

Yea, but one thing is sure that the orginal diff has not such kind of drill / hole bottom of it. people who works on land rover mechanicals in finland they have never seen such kind of hole / drill. inchape motors. They delivers land rover and jaguars to finland.

The differential was broken after 100k/km and rear wiper motor allso + handbrake cables are cut allso. 2007 years model, huh. Thanks for finnish road salt... many problems on this unit

I have the same problem. Landrover say its a tell tell hole if the seal fails but I have not fixed the problem yet. Can't understand having a hole in the diff when it's used off road and potentially wading through mud and water. Any LR mechanics know about this

Rognut wrote:

I have the same problem. Landrover say its a tell tell hole if the seal fails but I have not fixed the problem yet. Can't understand having a hole in the diff when it's used off road and potentially wading through mud and water. Any LR mechanics know about this

Landrover told what? Tell tell? dont know what does it mean, and what seal? And did you mean that any lr mechanics dont know anything about hole?

Maybe its something like they have on a water pump, they sometimes have a hole between the seal and the bearing so if any water should seep past the seal it will drain out before it damages the bearing, but I cant see oil damaging a bearing seeing as it runs in the stuff anyway? but it could be a water drain but Ive never seen one in a diff before.
Do you think it might be a leftover from someone fitting a diff rock guard in its last life?

I have recently fitted new pinion and drive bearings to my diff. After the rebuild I noticed oil leaking from a hole at the bottom of the difff. I called at the dealer and a service mechanic told me they have had a few leaking and fit a new pinion seal to cure the problem. I have removed the haldex coupling to investigate, I removed the seal and fed a twist drill up the hole and it exits were the seal fits. I dont understand what it does as you have diff oil at one side of the seal and haldex fluid at the other. I have a feeling the hole should be blanked off but would like confirmation though no one seems to know much about this.

If you have oil leaking from this hole you need to inspect the pinion seal by removing the haldex coupling. The seal cost about £10.00. It must me fitted evenly with a proper tool 10mm in the recess. No more oil leaks, happy days.

Hmm? Im wondering why i have to check haldex o ring? It was new oi ring when i installed old haldex unit to new differentiAl and still its sticky oil which is comming from bottom of diff so its 80w90 castrol sticky oil not haldex oil. Atm there is 1-2 cm chemical metallic padding layer on the hole and i tested that does it leak if i stand the car for 2 weeks and there was no oil leaks after standing still. I have to check after some driving if its still leaking. Before the standing still i put more padding to bottom and it should be perfectly dry, first i thought it was swetting trought padding, lets see what it does after driving 200-500km

It's not the Haldex o ring that is leaking. You need to remove the Haldex coupling and check the diff pinion oil seal located in the recess. The oil leak indicates that the seal is not installed correctly. When I checked mine this seal had moved.

Blocking the hole with padding is not curing the problem. You will lose haldex fluid into the diff and contaminate the oils. You must get to the root cause which is the diff PINION OIL SEAL.

Omg are you serious? Haldex and diff oil may mix togetter because of piston seal faulty. So let get this solved, that hole is there for some reason ( water out) and you had same problem that it leaked diff oil from bottom. Do i need to take hole diff away or is it possible just taking haldex out and check the pinion? What kimd of tool i need for pinion seal? And you are sure that there is no other possible causes for oil leak ?
Kindly jonny

Did you solve the leaking problem?