Jeresous

Well as per my previous thread about a whirring sound coming from my rear end, and people suggestions that it's likely a bad wheel bearing my car is now in the shop. It's under warranty, so I have no heart aches about it (except that I need this thing back by close of business tomorrow so I can make a 5 hr trip wed) but I am a little concerned. The shop, which is very reputable, called to tell me that theres a lot more damage then just my wheel bearing. I didn't get a laundry list (I'll post 1 tomorrow though) but they mentioned some bad pitting and both bearings were likely bad, as well as some other issues with the axle/rear dif. My question is this...

The car now has about 74k miles on it, its been very well maintained. About a year ago (but not even 6k miles ago) the ring and pinion were replaced. I would have thought they would have caught these problems THEN but... even so... isn't this a little premature for all these issues? The 74k miles have not been harsh, I do not race except for the occasional ricer on the freeway. Doesn't this sound a little accelerated to anyone? Could there be an underlying issue causing my rear end to commit suicide? Or could the original bad pinion that was replaced be the root of all this evil?

crazboy99

if its a stock 10 bolt....it was fubar'd when the car got made...

taintedmeat

iTrader: (1)

Bearings have a way of going out when they want to.

Jeresous

Heres the laundry list so far for whats being replaced:

Rear axle shafts (including bearings)
Differential pinion bearing
Differential side bearings
Pinion shaft seal
Pinion spacer

I was mistaken about my ring and pinion being replaced previously, I pulled up the repair. Looks like all that was done was the pinion seal was replaced, and the fluid topped off. This was last november, but only 1000 miles ago. The things under warranty but I think the mechanic is going to attack the pontiac dealership that replaced the seal because they clearly didn't check things out thoroughly and the new seal already failed after only 1000 miles. I'm not talking about the seepage that I've read is normal on Fbodys either, gear oil has sprayed all over under my car.

On a separate note, although I'm having all this done under warranty, meaning factory parts will be used... I acknowledge that the factory 10 bolt sucks, thanks to it being pounded in my head on ls1tech.com so I know that one day after my warranty expires I'll be paying for a lot of rear end work on my own, and I'm a complete friggen newb when it comes to the rear end. So I wanted to ask, how much would it likely cost me (in parts) to upgrade to a *good* 12 bolt setup?

taintedmeat

iTrader: (1)

I think they're like $1800ish for one that you can bolt right in. Take a look at the gear/axle forum.

lo_jack

iTrader: (27)

That is all acurate.

New 12 bolt or 9" is just under 2 grand starters. There is a little fab work I believe once you have the unit.

The wheel bearings go out when they want to, and by the time they are making noise they are gauling your axles, and it would be a waste to put new bearings on gauled axles.

Non leaking pinion seals on our cars are like the Houston Texans winning a game - not likely. The brilliant part is leaking seals contribute to hosed bearings, which gaul axles...you get the point.

I am in the process of rebuilding my ten bolt now (warranty - what's that?!) and even though I am going to end up replacing everything in the housing, it will not add up to a half a 12 bolt, but probably more than a new 10 bolt. It's one of our cars fatal flaws, if you will.

Jeresous

Thanks, yeah because of the seal though is why I think the warranty company is going to be a pain in the *** and try to get the pontiac dealership to pay for this... all the while prolonging my cars solitude on the ramps of the shop. Now the warranty company is sending an adjuster to look at the damages, hooray. I suppose the only benefit to the warranty, which is expiring in 2 months, is that they force the shops to warranty new work for a year / 12k before they will allow them to work on the car. Oh well can't complain to much, the warranty I purchased for $1800 has paid out about $3500 so far, this will push it over $4k easy. They were even cool enough to cover a bent valve after I first bought the car and had a little to much fun with it (missed 4th gear on a downshift, very painful learning experience, this is my first MT). However I miss my damn car already, I have to go up to V'berg AFB for work for a few weeks and now I'll have to take the truck.. that means I wont see my car for a good 2-3 weeks.

edwardswb

iTrader: (6)

I see you are in Sunny San Diego. Which stealership replaced the pinion seal? I have had a nightmare out there with my car as well.

Jeresous

John Hine pontiac... they also fixed the bent valve and seemed to do a good job, of course it's probably hard to screw that up without anyone noticing. The frustration with them is that they didn't really crack open the rear dif or they would have noticed other problems. Theres hot spots on the pinion etc, and according to the mechanic the wear on my parts typically takes thousands of miles to cause. I've put about 14k miles on my car since I picked it up almost 2 years ago, but only about 2-3k of that has been in the last year. I don't care much for the service writers at John Hine either, one lady took it upon herself to lecture me on how to maintain my car, as if I didn't know. If anything I'm probably wasting money maintaining my car, I change the oil way to frequently for example. Like I said I know these seals leak some but this thing looks like it exploded after 1,000 miles, theres gear oil all over. I haven't had the best luck with mechanics here either, Bob Baker Chevy wont even look at my car because "it's a pontiac" (WTF?) and D&R automotive who I use to really like, even though they are pricey as hell, took it upon themselves to scratch the crap out of my window tinting last time I was there. Pep boys rotated my tires once during an oil change, the guy there used my wheels to smack the socket on the end of his power tool, leaving nice marks in the wheels. They did pay for them to be repaired though and they look perfect now. Right now my car is at East County Alignment (I'm in Santee) and so far I'm very pleased with them. Every time I've gone down there to speak with them they have pulled me back to look at my car and shown me every part thats Fed up without my asking, and I've heard they have a really good rep here so we'll see how things work out.