Went to a local shop and had a buyers inspection ran on my 96 2.8 a4 quattro i just bought. And they said both my Front and Rear diff' are leaking. I was told there is some kind of fluid you can run to fix the leaky seals? how well does that work, or at all? Also my right outer tie rod end is bad how imperative is it to fix this? and I searched and found a small write up on it but I guess you need some special VAG tool for it. Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys

 

if you value your car going in the direction you point the steering wheel - fairly important.

5 speed manual or automatic?

 

its a five speed. Am I gonna have to get it done by a shop, do you know anything about that liquid stuff used to fix your bad differential seals?

 

theres a ton of magic "fix it" oils out there. none of which i would put in my transmission. if you want to try then go ahead, most leak stop type fluids are just very very heavy weight oils that clog up the leaks. i figure if they clog up a leak they would clog something else important.

 

how big of a job is the rear differential seal replacement? (Probably just outer left and right because i do not have the special tool)

 

I've got to replace my seals as well, anyone have a how to guide with pics?

 

Agreed. Anybody out there?

 

i was told by my mechanic that the diffs in my 98 2.8 qm are gonna leak no matter what . he said they all leak, thats just the nature of the beast.

 

TRE is very important to fix... should be very cheap (other than you will most likely need an alignment afterwards). Leaky seals not so much, i wouldnt worry about it as long as you dont see puddles. My rear diff is leaking slightly, when i changed my fluid there was plenty left and it wasnt dirty or anything. Just something you might want to check from time to time.

 

no special tool needed for the tie rod replacement... id check all the control arms while your in there and probably replace them too with a bigger and badder meyle kit or something equivelent. As for the seals... like said before, it depends how bad they leak.