about 4 months ago, i changed the fluid in my rear diff, along with the cover. i used the included paper-ish gasket, and put a bead of red rtv on both sides of it. havent any any trouble. however, today, i took the car out of the garage after it sitting there for 3-4 days, and there was a bit of oil on the ground. to be sure, i checked under the car outside after about 6-7hrs, and there was a little bit of oil there too. soooo my diff case is leaking. is there any chance this is from something other than the cover? it doesnt look like i lost more than an ounce or two, so is it ok to drive it to school and back? (20 mile round trip). id really rather not take the bus...

 

First check for leaks at the cover,
Second the pinion seal would be my other guest.
You can drive the car however, i would fix the leak.

 

so i finally got the tim to get this fixed (been riding my motorcycle in the meantime, and its around freezing around here, so thats not fun). i just realized i used red RTV to seal the cover, and thats not designed to hold up to oil, so im guessing it deteriorated. it would take a couple of days to get another gasket, so has anybody ever just used black rtv between the cover and the rear end case? i know that stuff holds up pretty well, but is there a reason i need to have the gasket there? thanks

 

I've used rtv only and it worked with no problems.

 

Yup Black RTV only for me as well. I bagged the Paper Gasket, when just like in your case it went bad 6 months after changing the fluid.

I would also check the Pinion Seal as well though, mine was beat up pretty bad and leaking as much as the cover.

 

only leak was at the cover. i actually checked the bolt tension, and they were loose as hell, the bottom one was basically hand tight. so i torqued them all down, and the leaking seems to have stopped. ill be keeping an eye on it for a day or two, and if i dont lose any more, ill top it off. ill also take out the bolts one by one and put some loctite on them