Any body blown a hydrolock or am I the first?

[Viper X]

Headed into town Thursday, cruising at about 70 in 6th gear. Roads a bit wet, so being very careful. Blaaaammm (very loud)! Lots of blue-black smoke (from left tire that locked up). Thought for a moment a tire blew out. Managed to get to the side of the toll road. Left 200 feet of rubber on the pavement, drivers side tire only. Event killed engine. Reflected on what happened for a moment. Glad I didn't go over the cliff. Wondered what would have happened if I have been going faster, much faster. Got out, checked tires. Engine fired right up, no go. Trans seems OK. Called Auto Club (tow truck). $102.00 tow bill later, according to Unitrax, hydrolock is toast. Drivers side tire toasty. Changed fluid in diff 3 times already. No clutch dumps. New dif coming. Should have car back Monday. Am I the first 03 / 04 with this issue or has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

[japon]

tow

Isn't tow service part of the "7yr or 70,000-mile tow assistance**" (see sticker)

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

First I have heard or a hydrolock going like THAT. Shafts and spider gears yes... but the hydrolock itself? wierd. sounds like maybe something came loose? Maybe whoever installed your 3.55's missed something...?

 

[Viper X]

Re: tow

Hi Daniel,

I first noticed it skipping / skidding the tires when turning slowly, like from a stop sign in a residential neighborhood on Saturday. Left turn, left tire squeal, right turn, right tire squeal. Only 9,000 miles on car. Took the car home and parked it. Made a few calls. Got an appointment. Headed out to get the fluid changed on Thursday and boooooom!

Still not sure of the reason for the failure. Should be picking the car up from Unitrax on Monday pm. It will be interesting to get their opinion as to what happened and why. As for the 3.55's missing something, I believe that the hydrolock itself is a sealed unit. Perhaps some crud could get into it from the oil, but I really don't know. I'd like to know more about how the hyrdolock works. It is certainly aggressive in it's ability / nature to lock up.

I'll have to check on the tow assistance, as I would like to get the $ back from the tow.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

That sounds like if definatly has the possibility of being spider gear/Carrier shaft related. It sounds like the diff locked up, which would certainly happen if the spider gears were jammed together. Interesting to see what the actual outcome is...

 

[Viper IV]

Re: tow

I doubt the tow would be covered with an aftermarket gear set. I wouldn't suggest persueing that issue for warranty reasons.

 

[Skip White]

Re: tow

I'm inclined to think the install was not done right, but there have been a few cases of cruising along and something like this happen.

I doubt warranty will cover this, since you had a gear upgrade, and if that's the case, no way I'd go back with oem. I would put a Quaiffe unit in the car. The rear in these cars is a problem. Youre lucky you didn't wreck with one wheel locking up.

Was there any noise in the rear before this happen, whine, growl, to much slack????

Skip

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

I'm inclined to think the install was not done right, but there have been a few cases of cruising along and something like this happen.

I doubt warranty will cover this, since you had a gear upgrade, and if that's the case, no way I'd go back with oem. I would put a Quaiffe unit in the car. The rear in these cars is a problem. Youre lucky you didn't wreck with one wheel locking up.

Was there any noise in the rear before this happen, whine, growl, to much slack????

Skip

That is also my train of thought, though I dont have enough information to point any fingers.

-Who did your install?
-Was the Carrier shaft changed when you had the gears installed?

If the carrier shaft was or was not changed, there are two routes that problems could have come from, if it is indeed part of the problem. IE; did the diff fail because it WAS NOT changed, or did the diff fail becuase the new one was installed incorrectly?

I am inclined to believe that the hydrolock itself did not fail, it was the spider gears that were the culprit, for whatever reason. A hydrolock rear end is basically a hydraulic pump. It pumps up and presses the clutch pack together, "locking" the rear end. However, you were stating that the wheels appeared to be under constant lock, I just dont see how that is possibly a hydrolock issue, as a tire rotational speed differential would be required to cause ANY type of a lock at all. Short of the clutch pack fusing together...I just dont see it happening.

 

[Viper X]

Re: tow

Hi guys,

I picked up the car today. The tech showed me what happened. As I suspected, the hydrolock was the culprit. It acutally came apart (in half) along the casting lines.

And yes to Skip's question, it had a growl / intermittent groan between 40 and 50mph in 4th gear that went away after 50. I though it was the gear set. Now I can identify it because it is gone with the new diff.

As to Viper IV's comment, now that I know what failed, i.e., a factory part and not the aftermarket gear set, I will pursue the towing $ and 2 rear tires that got wasted during the lock up, all caused by the failure of an OE part. The 3.55's were in perfect shape with a perfect wear pattern, even after the hydrolock blew up.

Hopefully, this is one in a million, and you guys will never get to hear that sound.

 

[TacDoc]

Re: tow

Hmm, the 3.55 in my 04 went south while I was at VOI8. It did not lock fortunately. I noticed a speed related scraping sound from the rear and took it to a tech. The rear had maybe 2000 miles on it and two fluid changes. When we took out the fill plug the fluid looked like metallic silver paint. I dropped the whole chunk and had a CC chunk installed. Tom Sessions has my original for dissasembly and hopeful repair. I have not heard from him yet what broke.

 

[MaxedGTS]

Re: tow

when i had my C5 i drove through a down poor. i drove over a puddle and sucked it up through intake.i know i shouldnt have cranked the engine in hinsight but i did. The engine wouldnt crank but it overloaded the elec system.the car cought on fire and burned to the ground, GM wouldnt cover it but my ins. company did

Max

 

[Kelly06]

Re: tow

Any chance of a photo or two?
Thanks

 

[Viper X]

Re: tow

I didn't take any photos, but thought about it.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

I am curious as to what you are actually referring to when you say "hydrolock". If I send you a picture of the inside of a super 60 hydralock, can you edit it to show what part was broken?

 

[PBJ]

Re: tow

Daniel,
He is talking about the pozi unit itself, it has a vane/cover that directs the fluid into the clutches to force the packs together. It is a weird setup and it is not very strong at all. I have been fighting this problem for a while. Quefe(?) is finally putting something together from what I understand. Devin at Unitrax says the Comp Coupe diffs are different also, but I have never seen one so I don't know...I do know that nobody is breaking those at the track. I am going to have Devin heat treat a set of spiders out of a factory hydrolock diff and see if that helps, otherwise these problems are going to continue.
Later,
Joe

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

PBJ- yes, the reason I wanted to get a picture to him is to find out if that is indeed what he was referring to. It almost sounded like the carrier split in half the way he described it above, glad to hear it wasnt that!

 

[Viper X]

Re: tow

Hi Guys,

The "hydrolock" is actually what we have referred to in the past as a "posi" as stated by PBJ. It is the hydrolcok "casing" that came in half. I bought the factory service manual on CD, and if I knew how to post pictures, I'd scan it in and post it. It looks about like two tin cups welded together and sits beside the ring gear.

I am told the comp coup diffs have a truetrac, and if this damn hydrolock breaks again, I am told that I can order a complete comp coup diff including the housing for about $2500.00. These diffs are not breaking, in fact, I hear some trans gears are going in the comp coupes.

On a related subject, I noticed after I got the car back that my steering wheel is no longer centered (slightly left of center) after the left rear tire locked up (at 70 mph). I guess I had to hold it a bit firmer than I realized during the slow-down to keep the car straight. I'm taking it in for 4-wheel alignment this week. Car now pulls slightly left. I'm hoping nothing else is bent or broken due to this failure. I'll let you know.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Re: tow

On a related subject, I noticed after I got the car back that my steering wheel is no longer centered (slightly left of center) after the left rear tire locked up (at 70 mph). I guess I had to hold it a bit firmer than I realized during the slow-down to keep the car straight. I'm taking it in for 4-wheel alignment this week. Car now pulls slightly left. I'm hoping nothing else is bent or broken due to this failure. I'll let you know.

May actually be how they took the car apart to replace the diff, and not the car itself. To pull the diff out of an SRT, you have to at least remove one side of the suspension. Depending if they did it the right way and popped the lower balljoint and the joint on the side of the knuckle apart, or did it the lazy way and pulled off the whole lower arm and unscrewed the adjuster, the alignment may be WAAAY off on that side, as when they put it back together they didnt align it. Look for signs the ball joints have been popped apart- if they dont have any, tell them to pay for your alignment. (if they didnt offer already)

 

[Viper X]

Re: tow

Hey Daniel,

Thanks for the tip.

Going in for alignment this week. I'll let you know.

Dan

 

[VIPERMIKE]

Re: tow

My new 3.55 are starting to go as well. Second set, I'm not happy. May get comp coupe diff.