pinemind

Ok,

I know this topic has been beat to death and I have searched on it. My breather got clogged (let's say "forged") and I woke up one morning to a puddle of differential oil on my driveway. So I did the breather extension mod and fixed the breather problem. As of this morning, after driving around last night at high speeds (hehe), there was no evidence of a slow leak like before.

So, I'm thinking I don't need to replace my rear pinion seal ASAP because I need the truck to move some big stuff on Saturday. I'm not mechanically savvy enough to play around with torque wrenches and rear pinion preloads, so I need to get it done by someone, at least this time around.

Here's my one concern: I can't truly tell if it is leaking while I am driving. There's old oil around the differential and I don't know if it is spraying out the seal or not.

Should this be a concern? Is the movement of the oil in the differential while driving forceful enough to shoot oil out of the pinion seal with a perfectly functioning breather?

BTW, that breather mod is great. Don't know what they were thinking at Toyota when they put that fragile little plug right on the axle. Still not sure if I'm going to keep the stock breather or go air filter style.

Regards,

Justin

Robinhood150

Clean the bottom of the diff/3rd member. If the pinion seal is still leaking you'll see a dribble of oil coming from the pinion seal area over the course of a few days.

4RunnerFever

I'm far from qualified to say anything about this concern, BUT it is so easy to check the fluid level I'd say just make sure it is properly filled until you can have the seal replaced.

Just remove the upper fill plug (on flat ground) and stick you finger in. If the fluid is level with the fill hole, you are good to go. If it runs out, you had too much to begin with. You probably know all this anyway.

Hopefully one of the gurus with chime it.

pinemind

My concern is primarily with driving though. I know it doesn't leak while sitting, I tested this last night into this morning.

Is there extra force while driving which would cause the oil to leak out and run off?

Or is there not as much a concern while driving because the pressure is let off from the breather valve?

Basically, if I keep the level up over the next few days, I shouldn't have to replace it ASAP correct?

Justin

OneTrickToy

There isn't any "extra" force on the seal itself. The breather keeps the diff opened up so there will never be any pressure to worry about. All that happens is the gear oil gets thrown around inside the diff.

Robinhood150

Mine's been leaking for the past 2 years and I still haven't needed to refill it. Mine leaks about 1-2 drops per day and when I drive I usually get spots all over the back of the truck and give the guy following me a nice film of gear oil over his windshield. You can ask Tdiddy about that .

Unless you have a giant pool of gear oil under the truck, it shouldn't be too bad. But, on the other hand I suppose the seal could let go completely and dump everything out all at once. I have no idea if that's possible though, the pinion is pretty high.

pinemind

Yeah, that's my thought exactly. As long as the breather is clean, there isn't enough pressure to send the oil up against gravity to climb to the seal.

Thanks for the info all!

Regards,

Justin

Robinhood150

Be sure to check the level frequently, just to make sure.