[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by Rock-It Man

How long did you drive with the wrong fluid and how bad was the noise? Now that they've admitted their mistake, I would politely ask them to replace the clutch pack. The problem is, damage will be impossible to prove. As the clutch pack wears, what happens is gradual reduction in the posi-traction performance. It will take more torque to lock up. It's not a step function from lockup to open diff. If they refuse to replace the clutch pack, you should consider whether you care about reduced LSD performance. If you don't race, maybe this is a non-issue. Nothing is broken; it's just that you may have less torque transfer from the spinning tire to the planted tire.

Good first question, but it sounds like it was not that long.
I think serious damage is unlikely, and I would wager the risk of problems goes up dramatically by asking them to replace this assembly and remesh the ring gear and pinion. I'd have to look in the service manual to see what's involved. The question is will the service tech even bother to look at that when he rebuilds the unit?

So I favor living with it as is unless noise or other problems persist.

These LSD units take gear oil plus a "friction modifier," which allows the plates to slide when going around turns rather than "stick-slip" which you hear as chatter. The original additive was whale oil which apparently actually came from sperm whales. Now it's still often called whale oil but is a synthesized product which varies slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Usually liquid wax esters.
More than you want to know here:
https://www.lubegard.com/technology/

I looked through the service manual I have. It shows procedures for removing rear axles and dropping the differential carrier. I cannot find a procedure to actually rebuild the diff. May be a separate manual, or they may simply service these by replacing the carrier with all the internals, which eliminates the need for fine adjustments like gear mesh.

[sckt]

Originally Posted by ctrlz

I looked through the service manual I have. It shows procedures for removing rear axles and dropping the differential carrier. I cannot find a procedure to actually rebuild the diff. May be a separate manual, or they may simply service these by replacing the carrier with all the internals, which eliminates the need for fine adjustments like gear mesh.

I would hope those are a complete unit. From what I understand, having several mechanics in the family. There are very few mechanics competent enough to properly rebuild a rear-end. Most won't even touch them.

[shoe5163]

2 Flushes fixed mine---

[sckt]

Looks like I’m getting a carrier replacement.

The dealer tried another flush and the noise still didn’t go away. Guessing the wrong fluid did do some damage.

Be careful guys if you are changing it yourself. Glad I didn’t try to do mine.