What I was doing while most of you went to the show... it should give you an idea of what is involved.

Jack up the car and undo the axle bolts

Throw a glove over the axle to keep dirt out and the grease in

Run some long bolts through the flange to press it off

Next up for most people would be to pull the drain plug and drain out the oil.. but at this point we just skipped that. But you will need the 17mm hex later to pull the fill plug.. you can also use a lug bolt & 17mm open end in a pinch.

So skipping the oil drain plug we started taking out the side cover bolts

Once all those bolts are out, take the 2 bolts you used to pull the flange and insert them in the 2 threaded holes next to the holes you pulled the bolts out of.. this will pull the plate out.

Once drained I pulled the oil seal out, although that can wait until you have it on the bench if you want.

Ok... so slide out the side plate + the diff

After this we lost a couple pictures..so I'll talk you through it .. under that oil seal is a cir-clip, remove that and press out the diff (local machine shop for most people). Under the diff on the other side of the plate is another cir-clip holding in a bearing that you can press out and press in the new one that comes with the diff if you want (also machine shop). Then press in the new diff, reinstall the cir-clip + oil seal-

Inside shot

Sliding it in

Now this next step slowed us down a little.. even though the plate has a flat spot to help it clear the rear sub-frame bracket...it still was a PITA to get it back in lining up the spines.. I ended up trimming down the edge of the bracket to get more clearance to get a straight shot..you can see where I was grinding the bracket in this pic

After that bolt the side cover and axle back on and refill the diff through the fill plug.

And for everyone who is going to ask, I haven't driven the car yet any more than just to get home & take a shower (highway) so I can't give any impressions yet. I definitely can feel 'that it is there' just driving in the neighborhood to get to the highway.. can't explain more than that yet though...

Modified by PowerDubs at 5:34 PM 7-24-2007

Keep us posted when you get some more road time in

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Quote, originally posted by gintaras »

Isn't there a bolt that goes through te center of the flange shaft? If there is, you missed this step, I wouldn't want people trying to pry off their flange without first removing the flange bolt

Nope...no bolt.

Driving in a straight line at low speeds?

Mike

No...swerving back and forth quickly at slow speeds.

Quote, originally posted by PowerDubs »

No...swerving back and forth quickly at slow speeds.

So, do you have the oHPP or something, and preceeded that slow-speed swerving with an agressive romp on the throttle to activate it? Otherwise, at those speeds I don't see how the Haldex coupling would be engaged...so you wouldn't be transferring any power to the rear, which means you shouldn't "feel" any difference--unless you've simply noticed an increase of drag from the rear. (Either that or it's placebo effect.)

Mike

Yessir--a Mk3 GTI-VR6 and a Mk2 Scirocco 8v.

Quote, originally posted by PowerDubs »

You can certainly feel a difference regardless of if you are applying power or just coasting. That could possibly be considered a feeling of drag.. or an incease of steering effort.

I guess my experience has been different than yours. At low speeds, driving felt pretty much the same versus the stock open diff, yet I could really notice the difference when applying power while turning. I found there was a marked decrease in steering effort, and that it was necessary to return the wheel to the center position manually with the TBD, as it wouldn't self-center as it did before. (I'm using the phrase "steering effort" to describe the effort necessary to hold the steering wheel at the desired angle during a turn, rather than the fact that additional effort was required to return it to center after the turn.)

Given my experience, I wouldn't expect to feel a difference unless power is being applied to the rear, and that won't happen unless the Haldex coupling is engaged. Although I guess it would be expected to feel additional drag from the rear without the Haldex engaged if that is a side-effect of the new TBD.

Quote, originally posted by PowerDubs »

All I said was I could feel that it was there, I never quantified it.

Yeah, that's why I asked all those questions: it was an effort to get you to quantify it.

Mike

Quote »

Given my experience, I wouldn't expect to feel a difference unless power is being applied to the rear, and that won't happen unless the Haldex coupling is engaged. Although I guess it would be expected to feel additional drag from the rear without the Haldex engaged if that is a side-effect of the new TBD.

Agreed, although I do notice that if the revs are up that
Haldex will stay as engaged as much as it can, even under light loading.
I feel it as additional drag while making tight turns in parking lots.
Tap the brakes and the drag goes away. This is actually one of
the Haldex diagnostic tests. Drive straight at 10mph, put the clutch
in, let the revs drop to idle and then turn steering wheel to full lock
and see how far around it goes. Repeat test while holding revs
at 3k rpms. It'll go less far due to activation of Haldex and its
inability to do differential rotation.

Looking forward to the review.

ian

Well.. experience is a bitch. I've temporarily (and inadvertently) made my car FWD. How? Pretty easy actually looking back on what happened-

When we were sliding the plate back in with the new diff installed we had a little trouble lining up the splines.. so as luck would have it..as we were tapping in that side (passenger) unknown to us it popped the driver side CV flange out of its locking ring groove.

Soooo after a little driving that flange backed out enough to push back on the out part of the CV joint and essentially dislocate it and that's the end of that axle! Its true 100*0=0.

I'm currently procuring a replacement axle, and just to be sure will be taking the insides out of the rear again to make sure everything looks ok in there.

SO.. if anyone is looking to do this install.. make sure you remove the driver side flange also..then install the passenger side plate/diff/flange first...then reinstall the driver side so everything mates up nicely.

I never knew pushing on the one side would pop the other side out.. hopefully no one else does the same mistake as the damn axle is $410.20 + shipping from 1st VW parts.

Quote, originally posted by ElevatedGaze »

take that 17yr-old-handi-acura!

Lesson learned, and we're all the wiser thanks to your efforts. Hope you get it fixed soon so you can give us a full review.

Mike

Quote, originally posted by PowerDubs »

the damn axle is $410.20 + shipping from 1st VW parts.

and I have 6 of them in my garden.

damn it!

good write up though, thanks for the warning. I f'ked up trying to press the diff and bearing out, didn't know there was a circlip in there, and shattered the end flange. good job I have 3 diffs.

Haha!! You've got me beat then!

Of course I may break something else again come this weekend when I install my headers...

Quote, originally posted by gintaras »

Isn't there a bolt that goes through te center of the flange shaft? If there is, you missed this step, I wouldn't want people trying to pry off their flange without first removing the flange bolt

WORD, All the Audis I have ever done diff side seals on have a 5 or 6mm hex bolt in the middle. Now assuming that he didn't have any trouble removing that then our cars are different.

Good to know!! I think I would rather have a bolt in the center!!

2004 DBP R32, HPA SS, Custome exhaust (Burns stainless w/ Burns Titanium race mufflers), Autotech adjustable rear sway, Phatbox
Kamei Grille, GIAC 93 and race programs, EVOMS V-Flow, Smoked side markers, Coils, ECS 10mm rear spacer, Neuspeed rear control arms, Corbeau LG1 seats in microsuede

Yesterday I tapped the flange back in til it locked and threw another axle in it. The car is back to AWD again.

Drove it around today in the rain and romped it around a couple different turns that I have slid around in the past in the rain.

Usually I can get on it and you can feel both ends slip/push a little bit...now the front would spin but the rears were planted rock solid. I thought about trying a clutch dump mid corner but had the GF with me so...

If anything this is causing me an itch to drop the trans and get the front in since it makes the front feel sorta sloppy in comparison.

Oh...and I think the Jeep SRT8 w/ the big Harley-Davidson sticker on the back window went home with a bruised ego.. probably feeling a little confused and bewildered.

x2, nice write up.

"I have great news for you, the Peloquin R32 rear diff kicks much ass. I've received some feedback from my Swedish clients who previously ran a Haldex Sport set up. There's a big improvement. The vehicle feels much more neutral and RWD biased. So, tell your R32 peeps to stick that in their pipe and smoke it."

Meaning what? That's more or less the opposite of the review you gave,
where you indicated that the rear end feels *more* planted, which unless I'm
mis-interpretting you, doesn't sound anything like "more neutral
and RWD biased". What other mods did your friend's Swedish clients
install at the same time?

ian

Excellent news!!
Mine's getting installed very soon, as well as a front Peloquin and oHPP

HPA FT465 | MOTON Clubsport | HYPERCO Springs | SAITO Rollcage | PELOQUIN Differentials | STaSIS/ALCON Brakes

No idea of what mods they had.. but I would say that planted VS sliding could be construed as neutral, no?

If it's being compared to a RWD car, then generally, no. What constitutes
"neutral" for a RWD car is one where you get a little oversteer on-throttle
a little under-steer off-throttle, and both front and rear produce the
same slip angles at just enough throttle to maintain speed through the turn.
Drive a Miata or an e36 M3 for reference.
When going from FWD or front biased AWD where rear lateral grip usually
far exceeds front, thus producing varying states of on-throttle
understeer most of the time, being compared to feeling like RWD usually
implies the opposite, the ability to steer the rear end with addition of throttle.

To me having the rear end "more planted" implies more understeer
and I thought that's also what you were suggesting since you
expressed your desire to upgrade the front diff ASAP to match
the planted feel of the front. Again, perhaps I misunderstood.
Or maybe you felt the car produced too much oversteer before,
and now with the rear diff that has been reigned in more toward
neutral? What am I missing?

ian

That fact that I can even *feel* an improvement from the rear is a good thing..and maybe the person saying it felt 'more rwd' was simply based on the fact the a fwd will give very little feedback from the rear?