tomorrow, i'm gonna replace my inner axle seals. i'll check the bearings and outerseals (which are bad because it's leaking) but if they're reparable i'll leave 'em be. I'm gonna clean out the breather, and paint everything uder there a nice matte black.

upon crawling under the beast for a preliminary inspection i noticed two plastic hoses (one coming out on either side of the axle tubes) that i could only follow so far...


circled in red is where it bolts to the alxe tubes just inboard of the rear drums.
what is this?

and for ships and giggles...

My 5RUNNER is now EVIL!!

 

oh, yea...it's a '97 2wd 5RUNNER

 

Circled in red is your rear ABS sensor. And by the way, just because an axle seal is leaking doesn't mean the wheel bearing is bad. I've replaced both of mine and my wheel bearings are fine.

 

i know, i meant the outer seals. i don't have a press, so i'm not looking foward to messing with 'em...so, i won't

thanks, i was unaware mine had ABS...i could lock up all four tires in the rain (until this bastard leak ruined my shoes) more stuff to poke around on, sweet.

edit: i just looked at your trucks profile. i like it...i like it alot. Cheers!

wheels look good black. i'm thinking about 2 toning mine; painting the painted part black/leaving the machined surface alone...but, nice runner, anyhow.

 

Thanks man! Well, now you have me second-guessing myself about that thing you circled, mainly because you say you locked up all the wheels in the rain and that's not right (also you pic is a bit blurry). If you have ABS the primer motor will "groan" when you turn the ignition to the ON position. Try that and see what happens.

Be sure to send me some pics if you paint your wheels like that!

 

If it is leaking all the way past his outer seals, that means it past throught the bearing right? The bearing is supposed to be "sealed" so wouldn't it be bad if it was having gear oil run through it?

 

Yes that's the abs sensor. It does not need to be removed to take out the axle. Just remove the brake line and the e-brake cable. Doubt gear oil is bad for a bearing. "Sealed" just means you can't service it.

You might have a problem with your ABS that is unrelated... blown fuse, bad relay, etc. Does the ABS light illuminate and go out when you turn the key to the "on" position?

 

In fact, gear oil is bad for a wheel bearing that is packed with wheel bearing grease. It will wash out the wheel bearing grease, dry it up, and the bearing will fail. "Sealed" means the bearing has it's own lifetime supply of grease sealed inside, and shouldn't leak out or let anything in, so in most cases the gear oil leaking on the sealed bearing shouldn't present a problem, but if the seal is damaged and the gear oil leaks into the bearing, you will have bearing failure shortly.

 

When my axle seal went out, I didnt replace the bearing due to lack of funds. It has been almost 20k miles since and I am still wondering when that bearing is going to go out.

 

i've got the axles out now...toyota engineered pure nastiness in this axle for big handed people like myself...i bet little girls assembled it...

 

well, replaced 'em and here it is 3 days later, and they're still leaking. i'm starting to hate toyota. everything went so nicely, so easily...i knew it had to be too good to be true...

time to send it to a shop.

"excuse me, will you warantee these for 2 years?"

"?they're just seals?...sure, two years 6,000 miles"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...i own you"

 

which seals did u use? oem?

 

timken, i think...autozone $5.99/ea

i'm just pissed because thats at least 2 more weeks until i can paint my wheels...

 

Well, it could be a number of things. Did you grease the rubber part of the seal when you put the new one in? Dry starts aren't good for seals. Did you clean/check your breather? If it's not working, the pressure that builds up when the oil heats up has to be relieved somewhere (only place is the seals). Is there any play in your bearings? Worn bearing that cause the axle to wobble even slightly can cause your seals to leak.

 

i put a thin coat of silicone between the axle tube & seal (tube walls had a score on the passenger side from when the previous owner had that seal replaced just over 2000 miles ago; at performance toyota in memphis, tn), and niether the seals nor the axles were dry (gear lube). there was a small amount of play, but not in the way that the axle could wobble, just enough so i only questioned the bearings on the first axle (driver side). the breather was open, it wasn't the cause of the seal leak to begin with either...i'ts only leaking on the passenger side, when i pulled everything back off yesterday.

thanks for the help, and i don't think there's much to worry about...i filled the diff to the fill plug, so maybe a little too much got in there...i drive it like a sports car, so maybe some axle upgrades are due...like a 12 bolt

 

I f'd up my OEM seal when replacing it so ran out to get a new one - autozone seal looked too inferior to use. Went to NAPA and that one looked more like the OEM. If problems continue - suspect the cheap seals.

 

yeah, napa seals have a green coating along the rim and as you seat the seal, you can see the green coating start to make a mark on the inner axle, so at least you know you have a good leakfree oil seal

 

do ya'll know the part #?

 

19630 at Napa
1960 at Autozone

The seal install tool kit to rent at Autozone is 27119

 

i used a hand hammer
pulled the axles back out, all looked well, put 'em back in after cleaning everything and greased the inside of the seals (no more leak)!!

so, job well done. next time i'm getting the napa seals, thanks for the info.