MM951

In my experience, the oil drips under the plastic cap, over the wire, down the valve covers, and onto the exhaust manifold.

3 minutes with a seal puller, some brake clean, and a socket to drive it down are all it takes

tkrtape12

Knfeparty, my vibrations all gone rear bearings and new Tires all around smooth as a babies back side ..Thanks for the help

knfeparty

Glad I could help you guys! MM951 hit the nail on the head- I smelled the oil leak before I saw it. The cam cover had oil running down it, and the forward-most ignition coil had oil collecting around it. You could smell the burning oil when it dripped onto the exhaust. I didn't have any issues with how the engine actually ran, or error codes.
I had to mutilate the seals to get them to let go of the cam cover.

pbkirby

Thanks knifparty for sharing the journey. I may pull the trigger on an '04 CTT with 78K. The car has sat for 6 months, needs tires, breaks, headlights (bulbs ?), radio , spare tire and a good exterior detail. Going to the dealer to run the vin to see if torque tube bearing, transmission, timing belt and water pump were serviced. They did replace the coolant pipes, fuel pumps and MAF sensor. Might be too big a gamble, might be a great deal. Who knows.

knfeparty

That's low miles and definitely worth checking out.

So, I replaced the lip seal on the front of my rear differential. I had to manufacture the "shop made tool" to pull the input flange off with a slide hammer. I used a tiny torque wrench to verify the rolling resistance the best I could, per the shop manual. I marked where the nut was too, but apparently I did not set enough preload as the diff grenaded after about 3 miles when I got on the throttle good. Limped it back to the garage. eBay diff with 90k miles is in the mail; was very happy with the price but hate being without the car for a week or more waiting on the part.

knfeparty

With a little help, I got the replacement diff in and all is well. Honestly, changing the whole diff is easier than doing that lip seal.

She helped enjoy the repair out on the beach, too!

And the second picture demonstrates the usefulness of the hatch "mod" of removing the interior carpet trim thing. Without all the extra weight, it opens way higher. She's 5'11", for reference!

knfeparty

http://jalopnik.com/national-hero-wh...ium=socialflow

iamtheari

Nice. Well deserved recognition.

RAudi Driver

That's a significant "significant other."

dpatel710

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I have some questions about changing the diff lip seal. I have a leak from what appears to be the input shaft to the front diff.

Seemed like a straightforward fix until I read about your experience! On my past Audis, the diff seals went bad all the time. The procedure is pretty similar: drop drive shaft, remove flange, replace the seal. The main difference being no need to verify rolling resistance/set preload.

Can someone please shed some light on the rolling resistance/preload part of the procedure? I don't want to grenade my differential while trying to fix it!

TRINITONY

gonna post that on Ih8mud.com.

knfeparty

The second video we did "jeep vs. porsche", at hard rock mx park, is much much better but there was no jalopnik article about it.

Dpatel honestly I'm not even joking, save yourself time and effort and buy a junkyard diff from one of the ebay stores. There are places out there with free shipping and you can get the whole diff for $200 or so. Swapping the diff takes almost no time, especially with a helper, and you don't have to make any special tools or anything. Then I guess you could do the seal replacement on the bench and have a spare.

The lash on the ring and pinion is set by the torque you apply to the nut on the input shaft. The traditional way to verify the lash is correct is using "paint" that shows how the gears are meshing. That of course involves opening up the diff. The Porsche shop manual attempts to use rolling resistance and a torque wrench to allow the mechanic to measure the rolling resistance. To me, it seems like the measurement would be completely thrown off by things like the size of your wheels and tires (or if they are installed), wear to the hub bearings, wear to the diff output bearings, type of oil in the diff, condition of the threads on the input shaft and the nut, etc.

dpatel710

Thanks for the reply and explanation! Gonna chalk that one up on the to do later list.

knfeparty

Mid-2017 update @ 170k miles.

Jalopnik featured us again: http://jalopnik.com/just-a-porsche-r...eep-1795167835

Ownership has been pretty smooth sailing, honestly. Have done a few long trips to Miami, Charleston, NC, etc, some of them towing. Biggest issue was the brake master cylinder letting go. I think I damaged it when I was bleeding and put the pedal all the way to the floor. This of course was only after I accidentally put air in the system when I changed the front brakes.

I replaced the water pump and then later the aux water pump due to the metal in my coolant issue. The water pump impeller had two blades just barely contacting the block. Never had any symptoms other than tiny flakes in the coolant. The aux pump was fine I think; I could hear it running though so I replaced it for peace of mind. That replacement is really easy; hardest part is getting the fender liner on and off. Was a good opportunity to clean out the back of the intercooler.

Either way, lots and lots of bleeding and one master cylinder later, the brakes are working as intended. The hawk hps 5.0 pads or whatever they are called don't have nearly the initial bite that the Pagids had, which keeps me from throwing passengers in the floor, but it's also not confidence-inspiring. Way less noise and dust than the Pagids though. Finally happy with them now that the hydraulics are working correctly.

Honestly the biggest pain now is the damn headliner. I am at a loss; I'm not paying $2k for another alcantera headliner and even the $700 for a regular black one is damn steep.

I did find junkyard running boards but the brackets to mount them stayed on the car (that was crushed) before I got there. So now I'm trying to find these damn brackets and they are backordered permanently. I will probably manufacture my own.

I could probably use a transmission valve body, but the car shifts smoothly when towing and shifts smoothly enough when not. I can't justify the cost considering the miles on the car.

I've been eyeing a 2008-09 turbo or turbo S as a replacement, but with the beating I heap on this car between off-roading, beach trips, carrying a dog in the back (girl's gotta have her dog with her), and towing, I kind of hate to drop a lot of money on a nice cayenne when I can just keep thrashing this one. So, as long as she keeps on trucking (recent used oil analysis came back great), I will too. I expect a turbo will go out or something else will break before 220k miles but we'll see.

fortysixandtwo

There must be an automotive upholstery shop near you that can recover your existing headliner for a fraction of either of those prices.