Leaky Diff ?

[melinx]

When I bought my Carlton it had an oily diff. and you could see where it was being spun out of the prop. shaft end onto the exhaust pipe.
The leak wasn't excessive, but enough to make a mess and cause a bit of worry !
On top of the diff. casing is the breather, this has a cap on it which you can pull of by hand.
There is also a fairly fine filter in there which is easily removed with the cap off; clean it.
I used a piece of bent wire to ensure that the breather hole was clear.
If this breather or filter gets blocked, when the diff. gets hot and the air inside expands, it can force oil past the seal.
Be VERY careful, if there are signs of a lot of muck around here, wipe very clean before doing anything; the last thing you want to do is poke abrasive grit into your diff.
You may need to use a mirror to see the top of the diff. but once you have identified the breather, it is relatively easy to get your hand up there and do the job.
While I was at it, I siphoned off as much oil as possible and replaced it with the correct latest spec. vauxhall oil : It is fairly expensive but only about one hundredth the cost of a new diff.
It has not leaked oil in the past several months !!
The car has done about 80,000

[bstardchild]

While I was at it, I siphoned off as much oil as possible and replaced it with the correct latest spec. vauxhall oil : It is fairly expensive but only about one hundredth the cost of a new diff.

One of my frustrations with Vauxhall/Opel

Opel Monza/Senator and Carltons of the same age have a drain plug in the diff to enable the oil to be easily changed

Carltons & Senators (post 88) Don't...... I mean how daft is that!!!! 

[melinx]

They have done the same with the auto box ! they say that to drain that you have to remove the gearbox sump, however removing the pipe that feeds into the bottom of it will pretty well drain it and there will be very little left behind the sump baffles.
Vauxhall wanted £12 + VAT for the small paper sump gasket !! I told them what to do with it.
There will be a large quantity of oil left behind in the fluid flywheel and various areas of the autobox anyway !

[Pedro]

Going with this - I wonder why my 1993 2.6 Dippy has a dipstick for the gearbox, yet my 2000 Meega 2.5 Elite doesn't?

Nice 'how to', Mr. Melinx - gotta get my GSi axle in this winter, so will be cleaning like a fury!