o2o making crazy sounds, diff shredded?

[Charlie_Foxtrot]

I just rebuilt my golf mk2 with an aba, mk3 everything, including cleaning and repainting the trans, drove it around for a few days. Now I'm scared to drive it cause it makes horrendous grinding noises under load.

It ran fine other than it made a slight dry-bearing-sounding noise that was almost indistinguishable from the lifter noise of the aba aside from you could feel it in the shifter and pedal very slightly and I had just assumed it was the throwout bearing which I hadn't gotten around to changing since the sound quieted down almost immediately after pressing the pedal in.

Anyway the other day I'm not sure if it was my imagination or what but in traffic it seemed like the trans was having trouble making a smooth transition while letting the clutch out especially from a slight rolling start, like it was grabbing super hard or something, but it's a new clutch and it always kinda grabbed hard so idk if that has anything to do with it, but...

Then from there when I let the clutch out from a stoplight a few miles down the road, out of nowhere, the right wheel seemed to make a crazy grinding noise like it was rubbing on the fender, and I could feel some crazy hesitation coming from the right side. I got out and checked, didn't find anything (haven't slammed it yet, it's only an inch or two lower), got in back in and let the clutch out and it did it again.

It only does this under load, say if the clutch is engaged or if you floor it, or go up a steep driveway or something, but seems to run fine otherwise if you don't hammer the throttle. I babied it home, running stop signs and lights, I was able to get it home but it sounded like murder getting up my steep unpaved driveway. Super, super bummed.

I put in the speedometer cable off a mk2 earlier that day and when I looked inside there looked like there was plenty of gear oil and it seemed pretty clean. There was a chunk of tire stuck in my fender, but nothing else to indicate rubbing, I think that just happened once on a nuts driveway. I'm not sure what else it could be if it's not the differential, brand new bearings and everything else.

i'm curious if anyone has ever had this problem before other than actually having their wheels rubbing on the fenders . Or just help troubleshooting would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Charlie_Foxtrot]

Anyone ever had a flange strip out on them?

[Mortal_Wombat]

get the car off the ground and check your wheel bearings also cv axles.

[Charlie_Foxtrot]

i jacked it up and it spins freely in neutral fine. axles and bearings are both brand new, empi axles and F.A.G. bearings. I figure if i jack it up and put it on stands, let it run in 1st and reverse then it will allow me to listen to the diff.

But since it only seems to make any kind of noise under load i figure it might be a waste of time anyway wont make any sound cause to just spin the wheels won't put enough load on it to make the noise anyway. I'm pretty convinced by the sound of it that it's the stub axle and/or flange splines stripped out at the diff..

The trans was pulled out of a car with some pretty nuts front end damage and the side that is making noise is the side that got hit so It probably was just holding on. Let that be a lesson to anyone who is pulling parts out of a wrecked car, don't paint em unless you know they work cherry.

[BooglesMcGee]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but mine just started doing this today. Same transmission I've always had, have new axles, CV's and all that put in last year as well as clutch, and just recently put coils on about a month ago. I don't know the history of the car before I got it, but I've had it for about 4 years without any problems. And it's coming from the passenger side. Did you ever get this figured out?

EDIT: Never mind, I just suck at figuring out the location of noise from my car. It was just exhaust rattle lol. I feel like such a noob.

[animaniac]

Well vw's are know for the diff's blowing up!

Any kind of grinding noises from the front of a vw makes the owners shake in fear that the differential has gone!

But i've never had a diff gone in either the 02a or 02j both of them destroyed gears the 3rd in 02a and 4th in 02j!

I'm probably going to get another vr6 an r32.

I know there not much difference between that and my 1.8T apart from 4wd.

And then thinking about diffs i'll have two diffs to go bang on an R32!

I wonder if vw use rivets and roll pins in the haldex diff's?

[animaniac]

Vw diff's are known for blowing the rivets, pinion shafts and roll pin.

On the 4wd vw's has anyone had their front or back diff blow up?

I'm probably going to buy an R32 but i'd just like to know if the diff's blow up on theses, and then i can expect it to blow up one day!