I am looking at buying a 93 4runner..its a great buy only problem is that owner says it leak rear diff fluid out of the "pilot bearing" where the drive shaft connects and goes into the rear end..? Thats what he called it.I am new to the yota's and am looking into some info. How hard is it to fix myself? what is involved and how hard? How much would a shop charge? Any help is great..i have searched and not found much...also if any mechanic's in the VA area could do the work i would be willing to pay for your services! Thanks for the help i want to buy tomorrow!

 

where the drive shaft connects to the differential is not a 'pilot bearing', it is the pinion shaft bearing.

try re-doing your searches using pinion instead of pilot and see what comes up.

 

Well, its not exactly a hard repair, but you need to know how to properly set up a differential (not for amatures).

But, there might be an easy fix, bring a 14mm open ended wrench with you and check to see if the differential breather (little stub with a cap on top of the axle) clogged. Just unscrew it and take a look inside. Mine was so packed full of crud it created a diff/axle housing leak. I cleaned out the breather and the leak stopped.

 

Ok i will check that...the truck is a grat buy other then that..could that being clogged cause the fluid to leak out of there? How much would you figure it would cost to get this repaired at a shop?

 

I search pinion leak and found a lot more helpfull info and it does not seem to hard or costly to get replaced thanks..and any more info if you have it..

 

as Jay351 said, the first place to look is at the differential breather. if it is plugged, heat builds up in the rear end and as everyone knows heated air expands. if the breather cannot let that pressure out, the pressure will force oil out through the bearings and seals.

 

If you decide to do it yourself, keep in mind that flange bolt is loaded, if you dont get it back exactly where it was you might run into issues down the road...