Well, I was driving the SRT6 yesterday and as I was coming up my driveway my passenger said "do a little burnout". I have a long driveway and there's a hill near the end, so as I turned to go up the hill I punched it. The car instantly started to peel out and lay down rubber, and then I heard a loud metal clunk and the squealing of the tires stopped.

The car kept going so I didn't notice what had happened until we got to the top of the hill and I gave it a little gas to get to the end of the driveway. That's when I noticed the RPM's went up, but the car did not go any faster. I coasted to near my garage and put the car in park and it made a huge grinding noise(like it makes if try to put the car in park when your rolling). So I hopped out to take a look underneath the car and it started to roll back down the hill! I jumped back in and put the emergency brake on.

Then I put it in drive and peaked underneath and I could see the driveshaft spinning, so I'm pretty sure I've joined the blown differential club. I didn't have the time nor the courage to pull it apart and see the full extent of the damage, but I'm sure it's not pretty inside that diff case. At least I don't see any fluid leaking or any cracks/holes in the rear end.

So, my question is - what to do now?

I see that you can get the full diff assembly brand new through Chrysler for $3000. I'm not really up for spending 3 grand, so I'm hoping you guys can throw out some alternatives (is the wavetrac buy still open for anyone else to send a deposit to get in on it? or how about used - what's the best way to find one?).

Any advice (besides don't do one wheel burnouts...LOL) would be greatly appreciated.

 

I've seen the rear end on ebay for $300 and there are many available at car-parts.com. Search for "carrier" on car-parts instead of differential.

 

Wow - great site - thanks for that tip! It shows about a half a dozen of them ranging from 400-850. Much better than 3K!

Well, that makes me feel better.

Now to pull it apart to see the extent of the damage

 

you need a slk32 or srt 6 diff. the gearing on the n/a version has different gear (3.27 vs 3.07)
call devil at unitrax and asked to be put on the group buy standby list. that way if they build more than the g/b you can get a unit or if someone drops out they go down the standby list.

lastly if you hear something break DONT KEEP DRIVING IT!! you are just doing more damage . remember if you buy a used diff it may not be any better than the unit you just lunched. could last yrs or days

 

Welcome to the club...

Definately not the funnest club to be in though.

I picked up a used unit for $550 to get me through til the Wavetrac is done. This used unit feels "loose" though... kinda hard to describe. You'll have to pull the cover and see how much damage you did. If you just blew up the spider gear and the case, ring and pinion are still ok, then you most likely can re-use with the Wavetrac. Otherwise you'll need to replace them. Mercedes/Chrysler will not sell the ring & pinion gear set, but I found a company that does:
OE Discount Parts

Good luck!

 

Pictures when you get it apart!

 

Most likely you twisted the right side half shaft off at the the differential. So you'll need one of those too. Though you might get lucky and get the half shaft stub out of the diff and just clean everything up nice. Sadly that wasn't good enough for mine. Also, be very careful with half shaft seals in the diff. They are extremely easy to damage.

 

It is most likely just blown spider gears. this would be a great time to get the WaveTrac. If there is waiting list just to be on the list. there is a Quaife dealer in England that has them in stock for about the same price shipped to you.

http://www.birdsauto.com/

 

If it happens to be an axle try here:

04-07 Chrysler Crossfire Axle Shaft | eBay

 

robert the quaife wont fit. i emailed them last yr and they have it for the c32 but no slk or srt diff

 

He emailed me two months ago to let me know it is now in stock and ready to ship. He wanted us to do a group deal. I didn't get back to him because of the Wavetrac buy. If there is a waiting list to get on the list then maybe Quaife should be considered. they make great diffs with a lifetime warranty regardless of how much power and torque you put to it. they believe you will break a pinion gear or axle before you break their diff.

 

prices? shipped to us? if i have to wait much longer ill buy a quaife. plus theres more than enough on the waiting list to do a quaife g/b. would be a great alternative

 

I am looking forward to the Wavetrac, but it would be nice to have another alternative...

If anyone gets a Quaife, let us know and how it works.....

 

from what i know mike they are basically the same. the main difference is the curved plates that allow for the traction when a wheel is lifted. pricewise almost identical although shipping from the uk might be costly and doubt it will get here any sooner than the wavetrac!
the quaife has a great reputation on the m/b forums with e55 cars pushing well in excess of 550 ft/lbs torque without any failures. theres a few write-ups on the install also

initially autotech was the distributor of the quaife until they went full time wavetrac production

 

I'm on the waiting list for the wavetrac, but this should be looked into maybe. That website looks like BMW only? Who is the contact there? Is the Quaife as good as the Wavetrac? Bob

 

Kevin Bird is the contact. Back a while I called Quaife to see if they had a diff for our cars and they tole me Kevin Bird had become the distributor for all MB diffs. He had done a great job for them with BMW's and was moving all MB applications to him. Quaife has been around a long time and their diffs are common in road race cars. I had heard the Wavetrac was pretty much a copy of the Quaife. they are very similar and priced about the same. He was willing to drop the price 20% for a group buy of five. He wanted to ship to one person in the US and then shipped to individuals from there. When I heard about the wavetrac I decided to wait that out as i didn't want to mess that up because at the time there was still people needed to get to 20. Now that their is a waiting list just to get on the list, it may be time to have an additional supplier.

 

Thank you. I'll give him a call and see how much.

 

most quaife run 900 to 1000$ with 20% off thats about 800$ plus shipping and ill guess that will cost about 150 . so about the same as the wavetrac. these 2 diffs are almost identical. i think its really a matter of who makes them available first. for the g/b on the wavetrac i think everyone is willing to ride it out. this would be a great alternative to those who aren't on the list or on standby. unitrax would be able to install either diff with accuracy

 

Thanks for all the replies!

I'll definitely take pics when I get it all apart. I'm going to tare into it on Sunday, so we'll just have to wait and see what it looks like inside until then.

I haven't seen any pics of half shafts snapped off in the diff like some of you have described. I have only seen pics of sheared diff pins and diff pins ripping the diff housing. So if I was super lucky, I might just be looking at grabbing that half shaft on ebay and doing a fluid change and I'm back up and running?

Can you see that the half shaft is snapped without having to pull the cover off the rear?

For the LSD's, I have two Quaife units in other cars I own, and I have put one of the cars through some pretty heavy duty use. The unit has stood up to about 7 years of 4-5K RPM side stepping clutch launches for over a hundred 11 and 12 second 1/4 mile passes, multiple autocrosses, a couple road courses and a few thousand "enthusiastic" road miles.

So if the Quaife is available, I may go for that.

As far as the Wavetrac, my buddy sent me this link. Check it out:

WaveTrac Differential Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 (HAG190 Axle)

Is this unit for sale through other distributors now?

Jon

 

Unbelievable!!!!

Reading about the broken axle made me go out and inspect it to see if I could see if that was the problem, and I can't believe it! I didn't notice before that the passenger side axle wasn't moving when I rolled the car. I thought both axles were moving, but I just noticed that it doesn't move, so it looks like the axle stub must have sheared off in the hub!

Maybe my diff is OK and it's just the axle.

Alright - change of plans, I guess I'm going to have to pull this thing apart now instead of finishing the motor install on another car

Jon