I was crawling around under the Firebird ('00 LS1/6spd) changing fluids/undercoating and I noticed alot of oil on the underside of the rear unibody and figured it could only be coming from the axle/ pinion seal.
I searched ‘pinion seal’ on here and noticed member LS said all F-body pinion seals leak. It also sounds like there is a slight gear whine from the back of the car cruising on the highway, so axle oil might be low.
The previous owner put 75w-90 Royal purple syn axle oil the rear end about 20k ago.
Should I just change the fluid and fill it up again? Or change the pinion seal if its not to intensive? (how difficult is this to do)?
I want to keep the axle and one of my fav parts of the car, the LSD, in great shape
The general consensus seems to be to let it go unless it is leaking really bad. If you aren’t leaving oil drops when parked for a while, it’s probably not necessary that you change it immediately.
Changing it isn’t too difficult, but you need to be careful or you could make things worse in the long run.
If you have a gear whine I would take the drive shaft out and see if the pinion came loose. I had this happen to me and glad I caught it before I went racing. I would definitely change the seal.
Good call, I didn’t check mine and then on my 3rd run down the 1/4 mile in Lancaster I had to buy a Moser. I agree with these guys, if it’s not leaking too bad don’t touch it because it will only get worse…
You can change it, but its like a 50% change it will start leaking in a few weeks again. The design just sucks. Unless its so bad the fluid get low, and you don’t want to keep refilling it just live with it. Looks like our gonna be getting a upgraded reared in your future.
Thanks gents, its not leaking in the driveway, I will check the level, and the pinion to make sure everything is tight, and change the fluid when I get a chance
If you plan on tracking the car, better fluid is in order (don’t ask how I know). I had an extremely knowledgeable drivetrain engineer recommend me the Torco RGO 85w140, which has worked perfectly since my rear end was rebuilt.
If you want the replace the seal. New Era can do it, shawn (fbodymadness on here) would do it in 1hr probally, shop rate is 75/hr. He just put 4:30 gears in my car and there quieter then the 3:73 gears that Strange engineering installed in their rearend was. He did all the setup specs dead nuts.
I was the on-site rep for American Axle (supplier for the f-body rear axle) at the f-body assembly plant in St. Therese, Quebec, for the last 5 years of production. The pinion seal used in the last generation f-body was a triple lip seal that did weep a small amount of lube over time. If you are not leaving a mess on the garage floor I would leave the seal be. It is not a difficult fix, but must be done properly to insure proper pinion turning torque is maintained during reassembly when you reset the pinion preload. Also, the replacement seal need to be handled with care, as it is fairly easy to roll over the triple lip seal during installation that will result in leaking after you are done with the fix. As far as the gear whine, the f-body design was extremely susceptible to noise transmission from the rear axle through the various connecting points of the rear axle to the unibody. No matter how much GM tried, they were unable to completely isolate the passenger compartment from rear axle noise. If you think about it, The rear body design of the Camaro and Firebird is like a giant speaker cone that transmits all rear body noise into the passenger compartment. If you are running a posi unit, I would highly advise the use of the GM fiction modifier additive used in Corvettes when you do a lube change. This will eliminate any chance of rear axle chatter on turns. The proper procedure would be to drain the old lube, flush the inside of the center section with brake cleaner and dry, then refill with proper amount of 90W gear lube and 1 oz. of the friction modifier.
Keep some oil in it. If possible change it once in a while, otherwise add as needed.
Keep some coolant in it. If coolant is not available use some sort of liquid, I prefer beer. Oh and I know it doesn’t leak at all, so just stop worrying where it goes, the world may never know.
Don’t worry about all the noises your car makes, it is just telling you it is ok. When it stops making noises that when you start to worry.
Beat the snot out of it. GM didn’t build cars for girls, or guys that drive hondas, they build them for men, real men, iron workers. Don’t be a baby, do a burn out weekly to keep both you and your car happy.
Update: I cleaned some of the oil off the underbody and drove it for 300 miles, didnt see any accumulation on the spots i cleaned, but did see a small amount of fresh oil near the seal, so I dont think the leak is bad. The axle was about 10 oz low on oil though (~64oz cap) , however that could have been the fault of the previous owner who changed the gear oil.
I got the same problem in my car right now. the pinion seal leaks a little and there is gear wine when its in drive. the car is coming off the road in like a week so i dont worry too much right now knock on wood