Leaky diff housing....

Randee of the Redwoods

Clueless. No...really.
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So went up under the Stang the other day to find the source of a quarter sized puddle of liquid on my garage floor. To my shock, I found a slick residue covering the entire front diff support bar and fluid splatter above the diff yoke. There's also carbon tracks on the exhaust pipes where something has dripped on them and burned black. All these mysterious marks are in the vicinity of the diff housing front/pinion input. Is this a sign of pinion seal leakage or overflow from the vent? Car(03 Cobra) has 30 or so passes on it and less than 24k miles. Everything in the driveline is stock. I don't know how long the rear has been leaking but from the looks of the carbon tracks, it's been going a while. I have a Borla catback on it now and the stock exhaust has no such marks. I do have a brief history of warrenty work on the diff cover, but nothing else.
 
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The 01 Cobra pumpkin has a pressure release valve in the housing that spews out excess gear oil when you get pressure buildup. I believe the 03 Cobra pumpkin is identical to the 01 Cobra. I recently found this out, since I had gear oil coming out of my Cobra after having a gear install done.
 

Randee of the Redwoods

Clueless. No...really.
Established Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2001
Messages
449
Location
Stafford, VA
Yea. I believe wheel hop caused my initial problems with the diff cover. It looks like it will have to be resealed a third time, too. Some rear upgrades will hopefully help that.
As for the pressure relief, I'll have to look into that. I have a friend who can answer that. The timing on noticing the excess fluid just seems a bit odd, but it is plausible. Thanks for the heads up.
 

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