baddog

Went to Big Bear mountain from sea level and came back with a gear oil leak all over my drums and wheels. After reading all the posts regarding this topic, I purchased a new breather and 3 inner axle seals. My leak looks to have occured once as I have only a single waterfall on both wheels. I pulled a completely clogged breather and replaced it, cleaned my drums and shoes, and refilled my diff with a quart of gear oil. I've put hundreds of miles on now and have not seen a drop of new oil. Is an altitude change a common cause for blowing inner axle seals? Is the design of the original seals flawed? Since I skipped doing the seals, I am wondering about how worried I should be. My 97 4WD has about 80,000 miles. I also have a 98 2WD with 130,000 and no leaks.

Ron Helmuth

Yes the original design was flawed and the seals were replaced with a better part design a few years back-ends with digit 6.

It does seem odd that once blown they resealed themselves up.Not sure how that would work out long term.

Yes altitude could have contributed to it happening- but as you say the breather was clogged-which was likely your issue.

Let's find you an exhaustive link here: excellent one by BigFishAllDay over on T4R

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-ge...d-3rd-gen.html

baddog

Thanks, that's the post I used to go buy my parts with. Probably 600 miles and still no signs of a leak...

Gerdo

Read this https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/4...ht-hub-220229/

There is a seal inside the axle tube then the bearings and then a dust seal. There is also an O ring at the end of the axle tube. You can have oil leak from a clogged breather or too much oil (this is what caused mine). You will need to replace the inner seal, bearings, dust shield and brake shoes. Why the bearings? Because the oil has flushed out the grease and they will burn up with just oil in them. Why the brake shoes? With that much oil leaking, the shoes have absorbed some oil and you cant just clean them off. Speaking of cleaning, Spray a lot of brake cleaner on everything in the brakes. ONLY use OEM brake shoes. Aftermarket shoes can cause a tightening/heat problem.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-ge...d-3rd-gen.html