fignewton

Ordered the kit from ECS, and got the wrench from Steve. Went out Sat after doing my 80k service stuff, warmed up the car, put it up on rhino ramps and changed the filter first. Kind of had to figure out the angles and experiment to be able to get the filter out, but it worked. That thing is really in a tight place, with access from only the left side. Had to use another hand/fingers to keep the wrench flat on the filter head on the right side when twisting, otherwise, it wanted to turn itself off.
Oiled the o-ring and put it back in, drained the Haldex unit. While draining, pondered the fill possibilities. Decided I'd try it from the bottom, using my caulk gun, some silicone hose pushed up on the tube tip, and another tip to go up into the haldex. Rationale was that a helper could work the caulk gun, parallel to the floor, while I did the 90 deg bend and held the tip up into the bottom. Good plan, poor execution...
The oil leaked back around the tip while filling, and when enough pressure was on the silicone hose, it pushed off of the tapered tube. Paused pumping until I got it back on, and then tried to fill. Then, couldn't get the damned drain plug square in the position I was in, so a bunch ended up down my arm and into the drain pan. Hmmmm. Knew it wasn't full by any means, so waited til today to get another tube.
Tried another approach this time, filling from the inspection hole. Got a Sta-Lube liquid transfer pump, found a plastic bottle that it fit, warmed the oil, poured it in the bottle, marked the original level on the bottle and got under the car. I have no idea how much of the original 275ml I got in the first time...maybe half from what was in the pan after the first attempt (I'd emptied it before filling). This time, I pumped until it was coming out of the hole, stopped, waited a moment, cleaned up the side of the haldex, then did it again. When I was finally getting a good overflow from the hole, I quit and put the plug back in. Looks like I might have only added about 1/10 of what I started with after I drained the excess in the pump back into the bottle.
Question: since the car was not level, how much does this affect the oil level? I know a dealer normally does it on a lift where the car is level. Think I'm probably "good enough"?
I can put it on a lift tomorrow and check it again...
Question: I test drove and all seemed well. Have not checked for any codes yet. If something was not right, would it probably code?
Thx!
fig

SparTTan

you are supposed to lose approximately 25 ml in the process of putting the drain/fill plug back in.

That's about the right amount if you take about 1-2 seconds to get the drain/fill plug back in after filling.

Just a comment on how crooked some dealers are: I know a dealer that bills 1.5 tubes of Haldex fluid per service, since they anticipate the loss of fluid when replacing the plug. How crooked is that? If they do it right, it should be ONE whole tube.

MCPaudiTT - DEFCON 1

So would it help to refrigerate the tube just prior to filling?

adminisTerTurbo

however i only lost a few mL. not to bad warm.

fignewton

said to vag the car and ensure the haldex itself was within the same range before checking fluid level.
fig

A6-Tifosi

I got my wrench in the mail, no I didn't get the Modshack plate, I wen ahead and got the real thing instead. I did the usual draining and what not so I measured the used oil, put it in one of my emptied Mobil 1 bottle, it measured to be about 260ml. And I think I might have showered my arm with about 10-15ml of new Haldex oil, so I said I did a pretty even job. My arm is nice and moisturized now. LOL

With that said, I used a Napa Suction Gun instead which worked real well.

The filter was a PITA to get to, I can't imagine people attempted to do this w/o the proper tool.