The Reverend

Went home to Riverside for New Years... I heard a little bit of a humming noise under part throttle that I suspected was a bad bearing in the rear end, but the thought of a rebuild made me shudder and I just told myself it was exhaust noise. I signed up for a track day this Saturday at Streets of Willow, put on my race tires and brakes, packed my stuff and headed back to LA today. I still heard the humming noise and I still told myself it was just exhaust noise, even though it didn't sound like it.

I got about a block away from my apartment in LA and some jackass went onto the shoulder like he was going to try and beat me through the intersection when the light changed and cut me off. I said screw that and gave the car a light launch at about 3k rpms. I went nowhere and the car made loud banging noises. I let off the gas thinking I must have launched harder than I thought and just gotten axle hop. So I tried to go again. Nope... the diff is FUBAR.

So, anyone have access to a low milage diff assembly? How about '04 parts? Anyone know what they changed? Honda claims it's a stronger diff, but I don't know the specifics.

Any help locating a new rear end for $cheap would be much appreciated.

Thanks, everyone.

P.S. the guy beat me through the intersection.

RazorV3

wow this is getting me worried. if im on the highway and get on the gas, i hear noise but i always thought it was the exhaust note. its not loud at all. can you be more detailed about the 'humming' sound?

btw i can only hear this noise when the top is up. when the top is down, the "exhaust" noise is not heard. i really hope its just that.

Slows2k

The 04 housings did change slightly from the previous 00-03 unit. I don't know if you will be able to find one, when I checked last month no 04 diff housing where in the country. I'm pretty certain the Comptech housing is stronger than the 04 unit. I remeber you having a Kaaz diff, what gear did you have? Did you have a Comptech housing?

kkyntmoon

be nice to the poor car

The Reverend

Kaaz 1.5 way LSD, stock gears, etc.

I had a little over 40k since putting in the kaaz unit, about 50k on the pumpkin (housing, etc.).

As for "abuse" - I've maybe done one clutch drop on this unit. I've been going to a lot of track days, but those tend to be fairly low "shock."

The "humming" noise... well, if you've heard the noise for more than a few hundred miles, then it's probably not what I heard since I'm fairly certain this noise was foreshadowing of the impending doom. It was a faint noise that sounded kinda like a muffled exhaust hum, but I could only hear it on accel.

I believe what happened is the noise was coming from a bearing that had gone out and was generating a lot of friction / heat / noise. For a few weeks prior to this, I had noticed the car seemed to have a little bit of risistance to moving from a stop. Very slight and it seemed to go away after driving a little, but something was slightly off. So then it got worse, made some noise. I did 95 mph pretty much the whole way back to LA today, so it heated up like crazy. Then I stopped in traffic and when I gave it a slight launch, the internals were probably ridiculously hot and finally gave out. That let the ring and pinion out of their normal contact patch and the rest is history.

I was driving on my race tires in preparation for saturday's track event, so the extra grip off the line probably didn't help, but I didn't really launch it hard enough that it should have even spun the street tires. Like I said, it was a VERY conservative launch (like 3000 rpms).

I will tear it open next week and inspect the internals. I expect the ring and pinion are trashed. Now, the question is: what led to them getting trashed? Did the bearing to the pinion burn out and allow the pinion to have excess play? Did the endcaps break? Did the tapered bearings on the diff itself burnup (possibily leading the endcaps to break)???

So, once I determine the cause, I need to move on to a solution. Right now, I need to research the 04 rear end differences more. I also need to see what I can find a 00-03 rear end for at junk yards, etc. And I need to consider being more creative and maybe putting something really strong in there.

If I have to order a full Honda rear end, it retails for $3500. Even with the discount my parts guys will give me, I'm still really f*cked.

Slows2k

Keep us updated on what broke, Good luck

RACER

That sucks

slick rick

3rd diff????????


I don't know, but something doesn't seem right..........


Who did your assembly for y ou?


It sounds to me like the pinion nut may not have been torqued correctly and the crush washer ended up with some play which can lead to all kind of problems.

RACER

Maybe incorrect backlash?

pjkwong

How often did u change ur diff. fluids?