WVS

Hello All.

I just found out that the front diff on my 2013 Cayenne diesel needs to be replaced-it’s still moaning after a fluid change and some high tech lubricant addition(Tribotex).
Because I have 230k on it I’m looking for a used one. Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I might find one? Is there a VW Touareg substitute? Anyone have any luck with multiple consecutive fluid changes as a fix?

I appreciate your help

WVS

garrett376

Aren't they around $1500 from the dealer?

CAVU

Two recent adventures with happy endings:

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...l-failure.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...pension-2.html

mikescayenne

I posted in one and started one of the threads mentioned by @CAVU when i replaced my diff with a used one. Let me know if you have any questions if you decide to do the job yourself. It is a pretty straight forward job, very well designed.

WVS

Mikescayenne,
if you have any instructions on taking this job on myself I would appreciate it.

jferguson6

Hi there,
I ended up swapping the front differential for a used one (cost me $950) after dumping the diff fluid and finding metal shavings in it on my 2013 Base 3.6L. You can buy the bearing rebuild kit online and DIY but I didn't have the time to do this.
Couple of things to note, the steering linkage bolt was a E-Torx (Reverse torx bolt) style. Sorry don't remember the size but it is maybe E12 or similar. The challenging parts for me are removing/installing the front driveshaft. You want to use a pry bar to carefully leverage and push the driveshaft out of the splines on both ends. There is a surprising amount of compression that allows the shaft to compress about an inch or so. Similarly when putting it back on, get it on the splines lined up correctly and you can push it back in place. The second thing that was difficult was removing and installing the front diff itself. Getting it out was not too bad, just remember how it came out so it is easy to get the new one back in. Since it is a bit heavy and unwieldly it was a little bit of a pain. I dropped mine from underneath, but just make sure you lower the subframe down enough to get plenty of clearance to wiggle the front diff left and right to get it down. The passenger side of the subframe I was able to drop down as far as it would go. The drivers side you want to make sure any hoses/clamps etc are not being hung up. Only thing I found was the power steering lines you want to remove from the bracket (noted in the videos below) and support the driver's side subframe with jacks. I did support both sides of the subframe with jacks initially and let down both sides slowly until I was sure there was nothing binding - you don't want to break other stuff after all. Overall not that hard to do.
Some helpful videos are:
(This is for 1st gen porsche but most of it still applies)
(He doesn't remove the subframe bolts, but honestly I feel it would be difficult not to do this as you need the room to pull the diff out - maybe having a lift makes it that much easier)
(Most detailed video for an Audi Q7 but again most of it still applies. He even goes thru the rebuild process a bit in the other videos, this video is 1 of 3)