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Differential seal leaking

4K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  Steve Jordan 
#1 ·
I brought my RL in for its A136 service this week. The service manager showed me a picture of a leaking seal on the left axle, and quoted me $585 to replace both.

I took my own picture when I got home. It's not wet to the touch, and there's no stains on the garage floor under it that would indicate a major leak. I'm thinking I'll just drive it for a while and keep an eye on it.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?

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He also told me that my battery test "failed". He said the tech was asking about my ground strap extention, like it somehow might have caused the battery to fail. I told him it's an entention of the ground wire so I have a clean, easy spot to jump it in the event of a dead battery, and that my battery (like the truck) is 4 years old, so I'm not surprised that it's showing its age. I plan on checking the voltage with my OBD2 app before I leave the house today, but it's been starting fine and showing no signs of eminent death.
 
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#2 ·
He also told me that my battery test "failed". He said the tech was asking about my ground strap extention, like it somehow might have caused the battery to fail. I told him it's an entention of the ground wire so I have a clean, easy spot to jump it in the event of a dead battery, and that my battery (like the truck) is 4 years old, so I'm not surprised that it's showing its age. I plan on checking the voltage with my OBD2 app before I leave the house today, but it's been starting fine and showing no signs of eminent death.
I can't really comment on the leak, but on the battery, they really will use any excuse to try to shift blame to the customer, won't they? Like use some common sense...

For what it's worth, my last car's OEM battery lasted almost exactly 4 years and it just failed to turn over one day - not stone cold dead, but not enough juice to fire the engine. No prior signs of imminent failure. Since then I bought a battery tender/charger, I don't use it often, but I plan to run the "reconditioning" function every year or two. Although this is my first AGM battery, so I may need to look into that a little bit further before proceeding 🤔
 
#5 ·
Actually I'm not, and was wondering if this would be covered.
 
#7 ·
Awesome, I'm calling them back today. Thanks!
 
#10 ·
After I asked him to look into the warranty, he called me back, apologized, and said he's only been working there for 45 days and still learning.
 
#11 ·
My dealership uses on of the quick battery testers that uses voltage and internal resistance to assess the batteries state of health. My experience with these has been spotty especially when battery is installed in the vehicle. It's possible that the technician was wondering if the extension of the ground was throwing off the test. In any event, I've made a practice of replacing our batteries every 5 years regardless of the testing results. With the amount of work that the battery in the RL does when the engine is not running, 4 years would not seem to be a bad run. We also live in the frozen north. Prior to proactively replacement, batteries always seemed to fail in the worst spot at the worst time.
 
#12 ·
We did a bit of apres in the parking lot at Killington yesterday. I played the bed speakers loud until they automatically shut off after 1 1/2 Frank Zappa albums. I tried to turn them on again and the display said I needed to start the truck first, so I guess it was monitoring the battery level. The truck started no problem.

I have a portable jumper battery in the trunk, so I plan on riding this battery out until its last dying gasp.
 
#13 ·
That may be an early sign that your battery is on its way out. A healthy battery should allow the truck bed audio system to play for more than 11 hours total without starting the engine.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I had the seals replaced yesterday. Honda would only cover the seal that was leaking, and the svc manager said the cost to do the other one was just a $22 part, so I told him to go ahead and replace both. Picked it up, the bill was $37, and their credit card reader didn't like my Capital One card, so he said screw it, you're all set.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I wouldn't use the bolt to charge it. Get to the battery and put the wires directly onto it. Any small amount of resistance will cause problems for the charger. You will think it's a junk charger and it's not. That's a limitation of fancy smart chargers. Connect wires directly to the battery. For jump starting it's fine using that bolt. High amounts of current aren't affected by that small resistance.
 
#20 ·
I wouldn't use the bolt to charge it. Get to the battery and put the wires directly onto it. Any small amount of resistance will (think megohms here) cause problems for the charger. You will think it's a junk charger and it's not. That's a limitation of fancy smart chargers. Connect wires directly to the battery. For jump starting it's fine using that bolt. High amounts of current aren't affected by that small resistance.
Thanks!
 
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