DJ Qube

I totally agree, and you're right about the prop shaft flinging it everywhere. It would make sense that it originated from the prop shaft, since it's too thick to drip, but I didn't know the prop shaft contained any grease. Does the rear joint of the prop shaft have any parts that are packed with grease?

Sideways

It should have lube since it must change direction with the suspension travel while under load.

TrackStar

It's not from the diff mounts or the prop shaft- it's either 1.)a bad pinion seal (which connects to the prop shaft) 2.)possibly torn inner cv boots. or 3.) output flange seals (which connect to the cv joint.
I'd put my money on the pinion seal or output flange seal. What kind of fluid is in your diff?

Sideways

IMHO, that is definately grease and not diff fluid. Way too thick. Since no one takes the prop shaft apart (it is not serviceable) there is not a lot of experience with that area.

There are several pictures where you can see the grease striations as it leaves between the silver washers.










The distribution on the exhaust and the mount is exactly in line with this and flowing backwards from the forward motion of the car.

Even the color of the grease is visable on the propshaft and exhaust:






Case closed.

jyeung528

so what does he do from here?

replace the part, since it is not serviceable?

DJ Qube

Great eye, Sideways!

Now that I look at exactly where the grease is coming from, I think I know what happened. I had to grind the heads off those damn allen bolts because they were siezed. It definitely looks like I nicked the end of the prop shaft, and the thing was packed with grease. Once the hole was there, the spinning motion of the prop shaft flung the grease out.

Thanks for the PM, too.

mikey k

with Sideways he's pointed out the source.
The bit that worries me is it looks like an angle grinder track.
Anyone cut any bolts off with a grinder?
I'd have thought who ever installed the diff would have seen that

DJ Qube

That'd be me!

Those bolts were totally siezed. Grinding off the heads was the easiest way to relieve the bolt tension in order to remove them. I couldn't even do it with vise grips.

Anyway, I cleaned up the area, and here's what it looks like. I definitely got a little overzealous with the angle grinder... just enough to break into the grease chamber of the rear joint of the prop shaft.



You can see what's left of the grease inside the joint in this pic


Wow. An $800 oops.

Reborn56

Damn bro sorry to hear about that.
Thank God i convinced my friend to just Lube it up for 1 day and let it sit rather then cut them with my grinder.
Ap2's have much bigger hex key bolts from factory, probably because of this.. Too many dealers were prob stripping these tiny hex bolts because they were siezed.
Its a good thing you got it worked out.

Marcus

mikey k

At least you found the problem!
Live & learn
Could you not just weld up the hole and refill it?
Nothing to lose doing that