Not nearly as hard as I expected. I took a bunch of pics, but I don't have my cable for my camera with me here at work, so I can't upload them right now. Also, my stupid roommate with the internal wireless router on her mac took off for 2 weeks w/o any heads up, and took her mac with her. AKA, no internet at the apartment.

Main points, it takes 2 people to smartly remove/install the diff/lsc. Theres a oring in the weirdest spot... centered in the vibration dampener. It's not sealing anything, so I don't know what the deal is, but the bentley says if you damage it, to replace the driveshaft. Whole deal weighs about 80-90lbs, so wrestling it in/out on your own isn't the greatest idea.

Also, it takes a 14mm triple square to remove the subframe bolts, and even the short version I ordered from snap on was about 1" too long, so that got cut down to fit. You'll also need a 12mm triple square for the half shafts.

Another interesting thing I'm not sure many realize, is that there is in fact an inspection port on the haldex LSC. I have a pic, but here's the deal for now.. Opposite side of the Haldex controller is another box looking contraption, on the side of that is a plug similar to the drain on the bottom, but a little bigger. Fluid should be flush to 3mm below that hole, if I remember right. Good luck measuring that though... I guess if you can fit a finger in there and feel it, you're good.

Other curious info... this rear end I installed was low miles, maybe 15K. No signs of leakage anywhere either from haldex, or gear oil. BUT, my haldex level was low, and when I changed to the redline 75W90 in the rear, I added 1qt, and then poured the old oil back into the Qt. container the redline came out of. I didn't even fill the bottle, even though Bentley puts fluid capacity at 1.1 quarts. I probably had more like .8-.9 quarts.

Might not be a bad idea to check your levels, even if you don't plan on doing a fluid change....

 

Did I understand that you replaced the Haldex fluid with Redline?

 

no no no.

Haldex fluid is still haldex fluid (a little on the low side still), differential is now 75W90 Redline oil. While I had the unit out, I changed the fluid. Much easier outside the car. pull the drain plug, drain the oil. Reinstall drain plug. Flip unit on end, open fill plug, pour oil directly into diff, reinstall fill plug.

 

Whew![] Can't wait for the pics.

 

what were the symptoms of your haldex at the very begining? There is no way to open the haldex and change parts in it? Maybe they are not available.

 

Haldex clutch packs cost ~$350 from the dealer, if you're sure thats the problem.

First symptoms was occasional front wheel spin, building to almost no power to the rear wheels thru winter, which really sucked. On a couple of occasions I threw a code for a mechanical malfunction of the haldex unit, but I haven't seen that code in 3 months. Last time I changed my haldex oil, I also noticed it was a bit darker than usual, and as the last of the oil drained out, I noticed some metallic streaks in the oil that I hadn't seen before.

The old unit had 139,000 miles on it though, and I have the blue controller,which puts more load on the rear. I really cant say exactly what the problem was at this point, but I hope opening up the old unit will clear things up. It could have simply been the high milage, or a combination of the blue controller and high milage, or it could have actually been a mechanical malfunction. We'll see.