Diff Input Flange Greasing M54 Engine (3.0)

[Scottieman]

Hi to you all,
Well it sounds straight forward ....It's not.
I've done it now and the clunk has gone but it was a right Barsteward.
Firstly could I get the exhaust nuts off....no chance....took the car along to an exhaust fitting outlet to loosen off the bolts. Even they had to use extreme heat to get the nuts off. The exhaust was pretty heavy to manouver so best with 2 people. I took off the exhaust rear rubber mountings complete. The flange nut 30mm would not fit correctly until the silver locking washer shaped to fit outside the big nut is fished out. Then had a right job trying to free the nut off....I used a torque wrench but boy was it hard. I did not fully grasp ....grease the back plate.....a picture would have been helpful to show exactly where the grease should go. I greased the splines and the back off the hole where the flange fits in.......Anyway it's done but it ain't easy believe me....I kinda miss the clunk now

[Scottieman]

Forgot to mention....every man and hugs dog told me trying this fix won't fix the clunk.....its this and that but grease ....No. I'm glad to say adding grease did the job. Well done to whoever first identified the problem and the fix.

[arny14]

Hello!

Do you still have the pictures? Unfortunately, they have already been deleted from here.

[Stufaalegna]

Before reading this post, I had my differential serviced but I still hear this noise. The shop that serviced the differential says that this procedure does nothing, also the grease contaminates the differential oil creating problems. One thing I don't understand, can the grease really come in contact with the differential oil?