Differential hot?

Differential, how hot is too hot?

Mine is easy to touch but difficult to keep hand on for more than a few seconds. Is that too hot?

It was under recall btw, and has a little bit of staining, but was cleared a few months ago as not leaking.

 

It can get hot, there's alot of friction in there. Change your fluid out to Lucas 85w140, and you may see some temp drop.

 

It’s only half-way into warranty period, so I don’t think I should be changing fluid just yet, if only to avoid giving them an excuse.

 

Doubt they would notice, but never know.

 

Can't say I've ever tried to hold my hand up against a hot differential, but I think it's safe to say that they're going to get pretty hot. Those gears are moving fast in there. I have accidentally placed my hand on a warmed up transmission, and that fucker gets hot. Same would apply to the diff, safe to say it's normal IMO.

Whatever you, don't accidentally touch a warmed up catalytic converter (or any part of the exhaust)...

 

i run the thicker 85w140 since the 75w90 is like water.

had a diff fail on me when i needed it as well on synthetic and that was the last time i run that in the case

 

If you can lay your hand on it and hold it, then it's below about 127 degrees. If you can touch it for a second or so and then it gets too hot, then it's below about 145 degrees. If you touch it and it burns the shit out of you, then it's above around 160 degrees. How do I know this? I conducted tests years ago to teach our service and tech engineers how to approximate temperature readings (for troubleshooting) on gearboxes and hydraulic systems.

At any rate, you are fine temperature wise for a differential. Even above 160 is OK depending on the load being transmitted. For example, if you just got through climbing a 10% slope mountain in the Rockies at 70 mph on a sunny July day, you would see higher temperatures than cruising through Kansas in December on flat ground at 70 mph. Load, speed and ambient temperature all effect differential temperatures.

Since it's Friday, it's stupid engineering joke day, and since we are talking about temperatures, I will give you a temperature joke.

"Didi you hear about the engineer who cooled himself to absolute zero?
Don't worry, he's 0K..."

(too funny!)

Have a great weekend!

 

Thanks guys, I guess I was fretting over nothing. I’m good at that

 

As much as I hated to do it, I paid the dealer to do a diff fluid service (~$110) after all this mess with differentials unfolded @ like 15k miles and they looked at my like I was crazy but I have piece of mind and mine doesn't get ridiculously hot either...