Is it possible for this to happen. At first i thought it may have been my power steering but after the cleaning i notced that the breather itself was all cruddy and the wires leading up to the rack was oily. I read someting that its possible if it was the wrong gear oil or that if the brather cant breathe normally gear oil pushes out of the breather. Anyone have this issue?

 

I know, old thread, but I've got the same thing happening. There seems to be oil coming out of the front dif breather...would a clogged breather cause this? I already took off the check valve at the top and it's perfectly clear and open. The dealer changed the front dif oil 30k miles ago and my use of 4x4 has been minimal..maybe 100-200 miles total, averaging 1-2 times off road per month. What else could be going on here?

edit: Here are pics from another tread I started recently:

 

I think that this is happening to my 98. I am certain that when I changed the oil, I used the correct weight, but it does appear that I have gear oil sprayed on my power steering and skid plate. ??????

 

Mine looks like that too.

 

I'm still having this issue. I even drained and filled using a synthetic. ( while draining i thought it looked like there was some water in the old oil. ) that was like a week or two ago. Then this morning I noticed that smell again, and yup there was evidence of gear oil leaking down the breather and pretty much coating everything around and below it?
Any ideas?

 

This can really only happen 3 ways:
1) You overfilled the diff with fluid (hard to do unless you had it jacked up high and the fill hole was tilted).
2) You play in the water too much. Water gets inside diff by submerging the breather, the diff is then overfilled with mixture of water and oil, diff later gets hot from running, water turns to steam, steam creates pressure, and then it blows out the breather.
3) Inner seals are bad and the diff's vacuum is pulling axle grease through the seal and overfilling the diff that way (least likely and pretty sure it's not possible on a front IFS diff).

If you think you may have water in the diff (and it sounds like it to me) let it sit overnight and just crack the drain plug enough to make it drip. The water will settle on the bottom and drain out 1st if there's water in there. If it's milky looking at all, it has water in it.

 

I was doing some research, and there were lots of posts on ttora of this happening on tacomas. someone even mentioned that if you fill to the bottom of the check/fill plug that youre over filling it. I believe the manual says 1.2 quarts. I didn't keep track of how much I put in. I just filled it to the bottom of the hole and let it drip out for a few minutes. Then capped it.

 

i have the same thing going on on my 98 4runner, and cant figure out whats goin on, i drained and refilled the front diff, let it drip for a while, and just like the pics show, my steering rack is totally gunked....

 

This also happened to me. I filled mine to full and for about a little over a month it leaked out the breather, but now it has stopped so im thinking that it is back to the correct level.

 

Another Toyota recall is needed, haha. My 2002 does the same thing....consider it as a barrier of corrosion control.