I have been noticing a rattling/ticking noise under my 06 H3 for a little while now. Only while moving. The dealership acts like they cant hear it. I decided to crawl under there today and it looks like a pretty substantial leak to me but i dont know a lot about that kind of stuff. Does this look fresh? bad? could this be the culprit?

 

Check the fluid of the diff while on level ground (remove the fill plug, the lube should be up to the bottom of the fill hole and maybe just barely try to leak out the open hole). If you remove the fill plug and no lube comes out, stick a finger in and feel how far down from the hole the level is.

Top it off if you have to, put the plug back in. Then spray some degreaser (simple green works) around there and pressure wash it clean. Drive it and see if you have an active leak.

The pinion seal may have weeped, but it may turn out not to be a big deal as it might have been overfilled.

 

Thanks doc. I will give that a shot.