Rear diff leaking fluid bad...did we blow it?

[scottd60]

Ok so I think we may have made major mistake...my son needs tires...2 are shot the other are close. The car had 205/55-R16's, a freind gave me 2 brand new 205/50-R16's he had them mounted on the rear. Like I said the 2 on the front are pretty shot so the diameter is down some the 205/50's are about 1/2" less in diameter. I don't know how many miles he drove the car (wasn't much) he started to smell someting burning (gear oil smells really bad and worse when it's burning on the exhaust)...his friend was behind him and said it was smoking real bad. He pulled over and the diff had basically blew fluid out what looks like the front seal and all over the exhaust (that's where the smoke and smell came from). Now after thinking about this I guessing it was a no-no to have 2 even slightly different size/diameter tires on the front and back of a AWD car I seems to be ok but haven't really drove it since just a few hundrd yards in front of out house and then put it up on the ramps to get a better look. Any idea what happened, do you think the rear diff is destroyed ? I can see the 2 different diameter tires fighting each other since it is AWD.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[absolute_DSM]

Different sized tires wouldnt blow the rear diff, it would mess with the T case I believe. If it developed a leak and lost all the fluid, yes it is probably shot.

 

[scottd60]

Different sized tires wouldnt blow the rear diff, it would mess with the T case I believe. If it developed a leak and lost all the fluid, yes it is probably shot.

Not sure how much fluid came out...didn't remove the cover yet. Like I said I did drive it down my street and back and it is not making any noise at all and seemed smooth. It looks like the fluid came out the front seal where the drive shaft yoke goes in...that's where it is wet...kind of looks like it buitl up pressure and then sprayed out the way thinks are covered in fluid ?

 

[scottd60]

Put 4 new tires on it and filled the diff back up with new fluid...been driving fro a couple weeks now and so far no leak and all seems fine with the drivetrain

-Scott