2008 Mazda3 Carrier/Differential Issues

Subirex09

Member
:
1999 Mazda Protege 1.6L
Hi Everyone,

My wife and I just got through a grueling 2 months of back and forth trying to get her car fixed. It is a 2008 Mazda 3 Sedan, 2.0L Automatic, maybe 105k miles on it.

Brought it in initially for an axle seal leak, but because the carrier also turned out being worn (previous life was a rental car), there was excessive axle play, and since the carrier is part of the differential apparatus, we had to replace the whole differential apparatus.

There was no axle-saver fix out there, so the transmission mechanic decided he would dig in, open the transmission, and replace the ring and pinion gears. He tried changing one gear with an aftermarket gear, noise. He tried changing the other gear to a matched aftermarket gear, noise. Finally we bought the ring gear, pinion gear, and bearings directly from Mazda, and had him put those in, noise.

The noise is a higher pitched whine.

We walked away from there with the original leaked fixed, but in my opinion the new transmission noise is a bigger issue if we want to sell or trade in soon.

Anyway, that all aside, what do we have to worry about if she keeps driving it for a while with this noise while we figure out if we are going to dump more money in, trade it in, or sell to a mechanic to flip if they want to put the effort into installing a new transmission?

If we have this noise, then our ring and pinion gears are not properly meshed, right?
As these gears wear themselves out over time, how will that affect the driving? Is the car going to lose torque? Is it going to continue to drive or are we going to get stuck somewhere?

The mechanic was adamant that the rest of the transmission won't be affected, but is that accurate?

Thanks.-Mike
 
Last edited:
Mike,

are you sure it's not a wheel bearing? I can't tell from your description how and where you hear the noise.


Hi Everyone,

My wife and I just got through a grueling 2 months of back and forth trying to get her car fixed. It is a 2008 Mazda 3 Sedan, 2.0L Automatic, maybe 105k miles on it.

Brought it in initially for an axle seal leak, but because the carrier also turned out being worn (previous life was a rental car), there was excessive axle play, and since the carrier is part of the differential apparatus, we had to replace the whole differential apparatus.

There was no axle-saver fix out there, so the transmission mechanic decided he would dig in, open the transmission, and replace the ring and pinion gears. He tried changing one gear with an aftermarket gear, noise. He tried changing the other gear to a matched aftermarket gear, noise. Finally we bought the ring gear, pinion gear, and bearings directly from Mazda, and had him put those in, noise.

The noise is a higher pitched whine.

We walked away from there with the original leaked fixed, but in my opinion the new transmission noise is a bigger issue if we want to sell or trade in soon.

Anyway, that all aside, what do we have to worry about if she keeps driving it for a while with this noise while we figure out if we are going to dump more money in, trade it in, or sell to a mechanic to flip if they want to put the effort into installing a new transmission?

If we have this noise, then our ring and pinion gears are not properly meshed, right?
As these gears wear themselves out over time, how will that affect the driving? Is the car going to lose torque? Is it going to continue to drive or are we going to get stuck somewhere?

The mechanic was adamant that the rest of the transmission won't be affected, but is that accurate?

Thanks.-Mike
 
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