my 199y crv has a squeeking/rubbing sound during slow, tight turns into parkin spaces. I read it means i need to change the rear diff. fluid and it must be fluid from the dealer. Any thoughts?

Noticed same noises/circumstances on my used '02 EX shortly after purchasing used from a Honda dealership. They said was rear diff. fluid, previous owner had probably changed with the wrong fluid, so they changed it under their warranty, and it has been fine for over 90,0000 miles since then. Has to be the right fluid, I was told. So, if you find somthing else that meets the specs stated in the owner's manual, I guess you could use it instead of Honda fluid, but then, I assume they used their own brand and it worked as it should have in mine, so why gamble with something else even if you get to save a few dollars.

Thanks, I am taking it into the mechanic in the morning and hope to get to the bottom of it. I just bought it without getting it inspected (shame on me)and when I went to get the yearly emissions inspection they said it looked like the rear diff had been serviced, so maybe that's what happened to mine. It did also have 3 balding tires and one pretty new tire in the rear, so I'm hoping that hasnt done any damage to the AWD

check your ball joint or whole front end and if it all wheel drive check the front cv shaft(constant velocity)

Same problem on my 2006 Honda CRV EX SE, with AWD. Changing out the rear differential fluid on occasion does the trick. Cheap fix.