Differential Service At All Night Auto Repair
July 15, 2013
Here at AutoNetTV, we have national viewers, like your neighbors in Livonia, who write to us with questions or feedback. One common question we're asked is: "What is a differential and what does it do?" You may have been told by your All Night Auto Repair service specialist that your differential needs service, or seen it as an option up on the service menu. Differential service at All Night Auto Repair covers a lot of things, so let's first talk about what a differential does.
As you drive through a turn, your outside wheels and inside wheels turn at different speeds. Kind of like the cars going around a race track - the ones driving in the outside lanes have a greater distance to travel than the cars in the inside lanes. The differential is what allows the outside and inside drive wheels to rotate at slightly different speeds so that the tires don't hop or skip while taking corners, or lose traction in dirt or snow on Detroit interstates. Differentials have gears in them that transfer the power from the drive train to your wheels - which is why they're often referred to as gear boxes. The gears need to be very strong to do this work, and they need to be properly protected so that they'll last.
All vehicles in Livonia have some form of differential. If you have a front-wheel drive car, your differential is sometimes called a transaxle and is located in the front. If you have rear-wheel drive, the differential is in the back of the car. If you have a four-wheel drive vehicle, you will have a differential in the front and the back - and in the middle as well. The center differential adjusts for differences in speed between the front and rear wheels.
Differential fluid lubricates and cools the gears. Over time, the fluid can get dirty from bits of the gears grinding off. The additives that keep the fluid clean and protect the differential break down over time. So your auto manufacturer has scheduled intervals for you to have your differential fluid changed.
Differentials are hard working mechanisms, and, along with the gears in a manual transmission, need to be serviced regularly at All Night Auto Repair with high-quality, replacement fluid. Your Detroit service specialist can give you more information as to when your next differential service is recommended. You can also ask if they have a record of when the service was last completed.
As with most service intervals, if you are driving under more severe conditions in the Detroit area, you will want to service your differential more frequently. "Severe service" conditions are defined in most owners' manuals, and include: frequent starts and stops, short trips, cold Michigan weather, hot weather and towing. All these factors add to the stress of the vehicle and its parts. Also, off-roading in Michigan can be especially hard on differentials, especially if you cross streams. Proper service at All Night Auto Repair will extend the life of your gears and keep them running more smoothly. If you have never had your differential checked, visit http://www.allnightautorepair.com/contact_us for more information.
Need Service?
More articles from Elite Tire & Auto Care

A Bright Spark (Ignition Coil Replacement)
March 30, 2025
Ever wonder how your vehicles engine is able to take the 12-volts from its battery and ramp that up to as high as the tens of thousands of volts it takes to fire its spark plugs? The secret is something called an ignition coil. Most newer vehicles have an ignition coil at each cylinder, but olde... More

Losing Your Cool (Why is My Air Conditioning System Not Working?)
March 23, 2025
When you turn on the air conditioning in your vehicle, you expect cool air to come out of the vents. You depend on it, especially in hot weather, but it can also be important in humid weather when you need it to help defrost your windows and windshield. The air conditioning system has a lot of p... More

The Part You've Never Seen (Flat Tires and Solutions)
March 16, 2025
They say your vehicle has one, but you've never seen it. And you might not even know it if you stumbled on it accidentally. We're talking about the jack, that tool that allows you to lift one corner of the vehicle up so someone can change a flat tire. So you say you'd never try to change a flat ... More