My whining was the front diff. The noise is either coming from the front axle transmission cardan shaft or the actual front axle transmission unit, they can't tell. In either case, apparently none of the 6 bearings; 4 in the cardan unit and 2 in the transmission unit are serviceable. What annoys me is that there are no serviceable parts in the Porsche catalogue but Porsche Stuttgart reconditions them. For a reconditioned unit from Porsche (with a 2 year warranty) I have 40% discount if I return my old diff. I only have 60K miles on a car - a disaster. I am really disappointed with Porsche to say the least that in case of one failed bearing the whole diff needs chainging…

Can anyone confirm that the above is the case or is there a way to recondition the units?

 

Sorry to hear about that. My front diff was replaced after 2000 miles because of a small leak in a gasket...fortunately under warranty. For some reason ($) they do not want us (even Porsche shops) opening them up.

 

I found a shop in California that was able to open my front diff and
find a bad bearing, and find a replacement bearing from an
independent bearing source. I haven't needed yet to run this diff,
thanks to our best forum members, who sent me their take-off
when they went to 2WD, but the job can be done by an enterprising
shop.

 

There are lots of people around here who have gone RWD that have an extra unit. Additionally, LA Auto Dismantlers (a junk yard) probably has tons of them. How much is a reconditioned front diff?

As for the cost, and if you plan on keeping the car (it kills resale value to go RWD permanently), consider going RWD and maybe investing $3-4K in a guard LSD?

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

Price for a reconditioned diff in Slovenia (Europe) where I am based is $6,700. I have also sourced out a second hand 996 C4 front diff. I have looked it up in PET6 and it appears the same. Is that right?