Hey to all,
My daughter has a 2006 Element AWD...86000 miles. Clunking rear end so I put it up on jack stands and crawled under for a look. The left CV axle appeared shot...I could grab both ends and twist...like 30 degrees between the axle halves. I picked-up a pair of CV axles and installed them...no seals were available from the dealer so I left the old ones in place...they hadn't been leaking so I took a chance. I also R&R's the diff fluid with the special sauce from Honda. The Element drove fine so I drove it 90 miles to my daughter. After the 90 miles I checked unnderneath and found it had puked special sauce...appeared through the vent tube, but maybe the right diff seal. Refilled the diff...it had lost 4oz in the 90 miles. Honda finally got the seals in so I disassembled and installed them...topped off the fluid. Test drove it 5 miles and appeared the leak was fixed, and the problem solved. 2 days later the daughter drove it home, 90 miles, and I found the same thing...leaking fluid out of the drain tube. She drove it home and called up to report the vibration/nastyness had returned. I had her park it and I'm trying to determine the direction before driving down there to fix. One thing I did notice was that the diff itself moved when I rotated the axles back & forth. Looked at the mounts without removing the diff...looked ok but now I'm wondering. Should I be able to move the diff 1/4" by pushing on it? I'm wondering if the mounts failed stressed the CV axle and caused the original shaft failure, and the new axle is now fried. I'm still wondering what would cause the fluid to drip out of the drain tube...I'm only filling to the bottom of the fill hole, and using the aprox 1.1 qts. Any ideas guys & gals? Thanks in advance...Mike (Dad)