vladhed

Update: In September I hit 192,000km and as part of the maintenance schedule had the tranny fluid flushed and the tires rotated. The result? The problem is gone - I no longer have binding after long highway drives. Don't know which change solved it, but the tire that was on the front passanger side had un-even wear due to my driving with a bad ball-joint for too long. So it could have been the tire rotation that help as well (keep both axel speeds the same). Also, after all the snow and ice and now living in rural area, I know that the VCD still works coz I got stuck the other day. After about 5 seconds of the right front wheel just spining on I could feel the torque slowly being transferred to the rear as the VCD started to bind, until finally the car moved and I was out.

When you originally said "Feels like something is blocking the wheel.", did you mean a wheel on the ground or the steering wheel? Based on the comments that followed I assumed you meant the former. Based on your last post, now I think you mean ther latter. With my car, the steering wheel moves freely, but the rear outside wheel wants to slip when going around a tight corner (e.g. parking spot) - so if feels as if someone was pressing on the brakes and I need to give it some gas to overcome either the resistance in the VCD (dry pavement), or slip the outside back wheel (on gravel). Sounds now like you problem is with the power steering.

Ah, I'd seen that before but didn't understand it. Does the vcd thing shown in http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential9.htm basically fit between the front and rear shafts in the middle of an open differential? (see attached)

Thanks for all the information on this. I have the exact same problem on a 95 Brighton, 5MT, and have it in today for the 168,000km maintenance and ask them about it. I just got off the phone with the tech who explained that the VCD is worn out, and will cost 960$+4hrs (1300$ Canadian) to replace!!! So I said, "what if we just leave it?" He said it would eventually wear to the point that I essentially had 2WD - though I think he means that the centre differential would essentially be an open differential, but that there would be no adverse affect on other parts of the drive train. He tried to describe the VCD as this "3-in wide disk with a big gear on it", and over time a groove is worn in the disk - ?? anyone got a picture :-) As long as I don't mind driving and AWD car with an open centre differential, I don't have to do anything. I'm not doing anything :-) cheers!