Hot differential 97 e320
 

97 e 320 approx 15k miles on it
When driving for about 10 miles or more the differential gets so hot that you can not touch it and hold your hand on it.
Is it normal?

The car was hit in an accident in rear wheel, the shop changed subframe, the axle and wheel on it.

Thank you

From my experience, that does not sound right.

Dumb question: Does the differential have any oil in it? Are you sure?

If it does there is something seriously wrong to generate that kind of heat in such a short drive.

Is the exhaust system routed properly? Do you have the repair records to track exactly what the claimed repairs are?

Haasman

Yes it has oil
It gets vibration in the back that the whole car shakes while driving at different speeds and rpm.
The body shop tells me to authorise mb dealer to remove and open the differential , so the insurance company can look at it, but I am afraid that the damage could be in the bearing and may not be visible with naked eye and I will be stuck with the $4000 cad bill of replacement of the differential.

What should be the temperature of the differential after driving 10-15 miles in freezing weather?

Thank you

It is not normal for the differential to get that hot - even if you drove for 8 hours.

I suspect that the shop did not change out all of the "bad" parts after the accident - expecially if you have a vibration problem.

I replaced my differential on my Chevy Astro recently and there are critical adjustments (gear backlash & bearing preload) required to properly setup a differential.

The differential should get slightly warm after driving 10-15 miles in freezing weather. It will get warmer driving at highway speeds then driving at slower speeds.

I would recommend having a shop familar with MB cars (not a body shop) look at the vibration and excessive hot differential problems.

Here they just replace differentials, they don't bother adjusting anything.
I am planning to go to mb dealer tomorrow.
I will let you know what they find

Thank you