mbonness

This is the 3rd and final poll I'm doing regarding the rear diff noise issue. Please vote as honestly and truthfully as you can so we can get some good accurate numbers, the poll is anonymous so your identity is fully protected.

In my case I will freely admit upfront that I didn't break in the car 100% correctly according to the owner's manual, at 400 miles I gave in to temptation and accelerated at full throttle when showing off to my sister who was visiting in town and I suspect this might have had something to do with my axle chatter problem.

But mine is just an isolated case, I need your vote (whether you broke it in like you stole it or babied it all the way home from the plant) to help determine whether or not this could be a break-in related problem.

RDunn

ive been driving it like i stole it since i pulled it off the dealership lot 7200 miles later not a prob with chatter

MEANZ06

NOT ONLY REAREND CHATTER FOR ME BUT BURNT MY CLUTCH ALREADY

Tally Ho

By the book, no chatter. 3500 miles.

3and8fan

2007 Coupe with Z51, 1000 miles no chatter.

The Clevite Kid

After R8C on May 31, 2006 in Bowling Green, heading South on I-65, keeping it to 55 would have been vehicular suicide, so I tried to keep it below 70 for the first 500 miles.

But one extra step I DID do, as recommended by Richmond Gear for a new ring-and-pinion, is that I stopped after 25 miles on the road, for over 1/2 hour to give me some coffee, and the differential a chance to cool off.

Result: NO CHATTER or any other symptoms to date.

As mentioned in my post on Thread # 2, FB3 and I prophylactically changed our axle lube out (at 1300 miles for him, 1600 miles for me) and replaced it with Mobil 1 synthetic 75W-90 plus 4 ounces of GM Limited Slip addtive part no. 1052358. Sort of like an immunization against future axle chatter.

We drove around in slow figure 8's in the parking lot to work the additive in between the limited slip clutches. We noticed that during the low speed turns, the Z51 antisway bars on the FE1 suspension resulted in really flat cornering !

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C5pilot

07 3LT Z51 broken in by the book. Between 100-200 miles I began to hear a little noise coming from the rear when I made a slow turn, but it disappeared shortly after. Still hasn't come back after 900 miles and a few trips to the track.

jjohn918

Not your typical break in here. 3-400 miles of constant speed (highway miles coming home from Atlanta). '07 vert with 3,000 miles and no problems.

cleif2000

By the book, chatter @ 4200 miles. Dealer changed out fluid and added additive @ 8200 miles. Now 9000 miles no chatter. Leif

mbonness

Not quite the results I expected. I have 80% of you claiming break-in per the published procedure in the owner's manual, which is certainly commendable.

I hate to draw any early conclusions at this point with only 50+ votes in, but it looks like my original premise (that rear axle chatter is caused by improper break-in on the owner's part) has already been invalidated if the majority of you (60%) are reporting you broke in your cars properly and it didn't seem to help as far as rear axle chatter is concerned.

Keep the votes coming guys, I would like to see us get to at least 100 votes before the poll closes next week...

Corvette Junkie

Break-in not by the book, no rear axle chatter.

PT109

Question: Besides the chatter, if the "chatter fix" is not done will it harm the vehicle. Thanks.

mbonness

I don't think it has been shown that ignoring the problem will cause any major damage to your car. In my case I waited until the noise got so bad my teeth were grinding louder than the rear diff, at that point I said screw it, I'm calling the dealer to make a service appointment and get this damn thing fixed. But it rides so much smoother now I'm glad I did take it in.

mbonness

OK, I think we have enough data points now to state conclusively that owner break-in habits are not a major contributing factor to causing rear axle chatter. Back to the drawing board I guess. I would have liked to think it was something we have some amount of control over but it's increasingly looking like this is just a problem endemic to LSDs in all different makes and models of cars and trucks, and about all we can do about it is service the rear end once we start hearing the noise.

I am going to suspend my investigation for now but I definitely want to ask the BG plant guys some questions related to the differential next time I'm up there...

Tally Ho

Nice work, Matt. Let us know what the folks in BG have to say.

Wayne O

Almost a total of 12,000 miles....10,000 on factory engine broken-in by the book and now about 2,000 on LPE 403 motor....no chatter to date.