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VW Golf R32 - Rear Differential Collapse - A201

11 days after a Main Dealer annual service including a Haldex coupling oil change (40,000 miles) the rear differential of my VW Golf R32 collapsed.

It was the first time I had driven the car after a 10 day holiday (apart from driving it home after the service) and it was about 50 miles into a journey on the M6. Prior to the failure there was a high pitched background noise which I had not noticed before.

Could something to do with the Haldex coupling oil change have caused the rear diferential failure?

My Main Dealer is seeking a good will contribution from VW towards the cost of the repair.

VW Golf R32 - Rear Differential Collapse - Simon

Did they actually put any oil back in it?

VW Golf R32 - Rear Differential Collapse - aj

How did you get on with the goodwill contribution? My wife was driving her Seat Altea Freetrack 4 (which uses the same Haldex 4wd system as the Golf). It was serviced at the end of August including Haldex oil change by a Seat Dealer. We went on holiday for 3 weeks, when we got back she drove the car which produced a high pitched whine then the rear diff seized and then broke. Sounds exactly the same to me. We are waiting for the whole bad news story on cost but the dealer was very quick to say that this couldn't have anything to do with the Haldex unit but it sames a strange co-incidence in a car that is just over 4 years old and has covered only 42,000 miles. Did they put enough fluid back into the Haldex unit or did this fail causing the rear diff to seize?