E200 1998 (W210) Rear Diff Oil Leak

[armstrob]

Hi all,

I just purchased an E200 W210 and love it. I just had it serviced and while the mechanic had it up on the ramp he noticed a leak in from the rear axle which he tells me is a gear oil leak from the differential..... He tells me that I now need to get a replacement rear axle.
I just bought the car and was about to put it in for it's NCT (The Irish equivelent of an MOT) but it will fail on this. Do I really have to replace the rear axle or is there anything else I can do?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[OliverK]

well for one, you don't have to replace the rear axle, and two, how big is the leak?

IF this mechanic is recommending a complete axle replacement as opposed to just a diff reseal, he is trying to hose you. I would run, fast.

[armstrob]

Oliver,

Thanks a million for your quick reply. The leak seems to be about a drop or two a day based on the ground stain. He refilled the gear oil today and told me to come back in about 4 weeks to see how bad it is. Can the seals be just redone? If so is it a really big job?
The mechanic told me to source a reconditoned unit and it would take him a couple of hours to fit. If I could just get seal done I would much rather prefer that.

[Kobus]

If yougot no other problems, just replace the leaking seals. You have no control over how well the reconditioning was done, so you may end up worse (whine, clunk, etc). Both the pinion seal and the sideshaft seals can be replaced. Find out which is leaking - probably the pinion seal.

[armstrob]

Thanks a million for your help guys. I am getting the seals checked by another mechanic and getting them all replaced to be safe.