forester479 Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 My 03 forester w/ 51k miles started leaking dif fluid last week where the axle comes out of the transmission on the driver's side. This is the second trans in this car, the first one was replaced at 27k miles so I wasn't too happy that this second one was leaking. Since I have an extended warranty I took it to the dealer to have it checked out, I thought maybe a seal had gone bad. When they called me the service writer said the axle had popped out. They put it back in place and are going to change the differential fluid. They asked me if someone had tried to fix a rattling heat shield on that side since the shield has a couple of hose clamps on it. They suggested maybe the mechanic who worked on it used the axle for leverage and popped it out. Is it possible for the axle to come out of the trans that easily?? I told him I had watched my regular mechanic put the clamps on the heat shield and he didn't even touch the axle. I'm a little confused by this one..... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericem Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Definitely should not be that easy. Maybe last transmission was not installed correctly. If that shaft does come apart though the fluid would leak out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniberp Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 My 03 forester w/ 51k miles started leaking dif fluid last week where the axle comes out of the transmission on the driver's side. This is the second trans in this car, the first one was replaced at 27k miles so I wasn't too happy that this second one was leaking. Since I have an extended warranty I took it to the dealer to have it checked out, I thought maybe a seal had gone bad. When they called me the service writer said the axle had popped out. They put it back in place and are going to change the differential fluid. They asked me if someone had tried to fix a rattling heat shield on that side since the shield has a couple of hose clamps on it. They suggested maybe the mechanic who worked on it used the axle for leverage and popped it out. Is it possible for the axle to come out of the trans that easily?? I told him I had watched my regular mechanic put the clamps on the heat shield and he didn't even touch the axle. I'm a little confused by this one..... Mike There is a pinned hole that connects the inner cv hub to the axle stub. If that pin is missing the cv can retreat a bit off the axle stub. IDK if that pin is critical, it may have been missed on the tranny reinstall. If there was no vibration it seems odd that the shaft would be wobbling enough to fail the seal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Are we talking about a front Half Shaft, Rear Half Shaft, or the drive shaft to the rear diff? No way the main drive shaft should come out in any way, there is a carrier bearing bolted to the car half way back that prevents that. The Front half shaft attach to a splined shaft that sticks out of the transmission. Even if they didn't put that pin in and the axle shaft moved, it shouldn't leak fluid, plus I've never seen a subaru where there was enough play to completely pop the axle off of that splined shaft without undoing some part of the outter suspension. The only place I see this being possible is in the rear. Those half shafts are just popped in, and those axles have a shaft on them that goes into the diff. If they aren't in all the way you can get leakage. So what exactly are we talking about here?? Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forester479 Posted November 12, 2007 Author Share Posted November 12, 2007 Just got back from picking it up, the service tech wrote; "appears as though someone pried on the left front axle, popping it out of place to fix exhaust" I don't know what was involved to fix it but the only charge was to drain and refill the differential fluid. I know no one pried on the front axle because I watched my mechanic who is also a buddy of mine put on two hose clamps to stop a rattling heat shield. Also it started leaking during the week last week, nothing has been service on it for about a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsince77 Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Sorry, but isn't the differential in the back, and this is the front axle? Why would they change the differential fluid? I had a thread here a couple of weeks ago about my 97 OBW left rear axle popping out of the differential while driving down the highway. I ended up replacing both axles (194000 miles on them). So far all has been working fine. The best theory was that the inner joint may have momentarily siezed and pulled the axle part way out of the diff. But I think that's a whole different set-up if this was on the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 clarify for those that missed it - his front transmission side axle stub popped out of the FRONT differential. there are two differentials on an automatic, one up front, one in the rear. this is in regards to the front. sometimes they are not all that difficult to get the axle stubs to pull out of the transmission, it is kind of bizarre how they are put together here. it's only held in by a circlip, that's it. it's a rather large circlip, but it is there. even IF someone pried on it, i would not expect that side to side force would be enough to pop the clip out. i've seen transmissions dangling by the axles before, with the axles at maximum deflection and supporting the entire weight of the transmission and i've never seen an axle pop out in this situation. it usually requires direct force pulling out, or away from, the transmission. a force parallel to the cv axle so to speak to get them to pop out. it's not a big fix, they just pop back in. hopefully the axle popped out and you didn't try to drive it much, right? the 4EAT drives funny like that anyway, so hopefully you didn't go far. attempting to drive it with a loss of diff fluid would be a very, very bad thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forester479 Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 Thanks for all the great information. Don't know how it could have popped out but it did. I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure it's not leaking anymore. I didn't drive it very far so hopefully there's no internal damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcspeer Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Gary is right about the little cir. clip. It is a small stiff wire that is in a circle with about 3/8 of in. gap, you just slid this over the groove that is in the axle stub. then you squeeze it together and push axle stub back in transaxle. The clip will then expand on the inside of transaxle to hold it in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Nearly all half shafts of all makes and models are put together this way. Even the IFS on the Toyota trucks is done this way. The only difference is that the stub axles seperate from the Subaru axles using the roll-pin. The cir-clip is ubiquitous and rarely if ever do you see one come out on it's own. The suspension is built to not allow the axle to droop far enough to pull them free. On a lot of makes, the cir-clips don't center very well on their own and tend to bind when attempting to install them. I use a peice of rubber band and put it under the cir-clip to hold it out and even all the way around when inserting them. Sometimes inexperienced mechanics will smash the cir-clips down so they don't extend very far out of the groove in an effort to get them installed without binding - this could lead to them comming out too easily. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montana105 Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 would it take 24000 miles to experience this between the first and now,seems a little extreme to me,but who am I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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