One of the cheap mods we all do is extending the rear differential breather. Not checking to see if its working correctly may run into an unnecessary repair.

A couple of weeks ago I when I hopped on my rear tire to unload stuff off the roof rack, the rear wheel squeaked like the e-breaks weren't set. I reset the e-break to make sure. Crawled underneath the runner and found what I thought was brake fluid leaking from my drivers side rear drum. I thought, could it be the bearings, slave cylinder, or a broken seal?

Did some research and found a thread at Outdoorwire about extended breathers getting clogged. I crawled under the rig unclamped the hose, blew into it..........and almost blacked out from lack of breather....get it. he he Im a dork.
Also when I installed it I ran the hose up the fuel pipe and zip tide it right before the lip of the fuel funnel. This is where the breather stopped working. I removed the rubber cover and found that the breather was wedged against the lip of the funnel so it could not open.

Found that I broke the seal and it was diff fluid that was leaking. Had the parts but no time to repair myself so I had Toyota replace the seal and had new brake shoes installed and drums done.

I since put the original breather back on. I have a new location that I'll be running the hose up to.
I'll post when I complete it.

 

Wow. I now have a strong urge to go check my breather. Good find!

 

Yeah, that kinda happened to me too, but I found it the leak early. My leak was where the drive shaft went into the third member. I had used window washer tube which was a little too small and made the tube too long. The fact that the tube was too long meant it couldn't equalize the pressure well enough. So I re-routed it and shortened it and it seems to work fine now.

Steve

 

Man...the rear axel seal seems to be bad news on 4Runners.

 

Good post Mike.
I keep hearing about 3rd gen seals doing this.

Have not had a problem on mine yet.
It might be a good idea though for me to unbolt the gas tank filler hose area and check how my line is doing.

I have the heavy duty line though that is pretty hard to crush or pinch.

Looking forward to seeing where you remount yours.

 

It can't hurt to check things out. I wish I had.
It wasn't the line that clogged it though. It was the breather that ended up pushed against the lip of the gas filler. It pushed it shut.

It would be nice to have a section of the forum for stuff like this. Maybe putting into the maintenance section.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

I just finished doing the breathers on mine and ran it the same way yours was. Guess I'll be checking to see that I'm not gonna have the same problem.

 

Mike, great idea.
OK, we have the Great Tips section linked from the Portal page.

Not to many tips in there right now. Thinking about revising it though so only the links to the post is there to click on instead of actually having part of the post there like it is now.

Or...create a new forum category on the main page (Tips) and inside will be a place to put "tips" like yours and the two that are on the Tips page now.
The forum would be "locked" so as to not allow postings to that subject as the ones in that category would be a duplicate of the original, only easier to find since they are all in one spot.

Either way would work.
Corey

 

So where did you locate the new breather and line? I was going to do this mod but I am a bit weary now that I read this post. I did look under my rig and all there is...is just that bolt breather which barely sits ontop of my rear differential. What do you all think I should do? I ordered all the parts..


I just don't want any leaks or BIG repair bills.

Danny

 

Slave Cylinder, can those things leak all the way to the rear axle housing? JUST KIDDING WITH YOU. I will be rerouting it tomorrow as well!

 

Question came to mind on this.....Will this void my warranty in anyway shape of form?

Danny

 

just change it back before you take it in since it's not a permanent mod.

 

True but such a pain :pat:

 

better than paying the labor and parts on anything that goes wrong with the rear driveline.

 

gotta watch them dirt daubers too, they will stop up a breather too !!!!

 

BTDT; I've had that warning on my breather web page for many, many years:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...html#Breathers

And I don't like to use the stock breathers in the ends of the extended lines. An open filter is far better than the stock breather.

 

You guys realize that you are replying to a thread that has not been posted to in over two years, right?

 

 

hahaha, thanks for the cheap laugh. however, if the vehicle hasn't changed, then any additions here remain relevant, i'd think...

 

relevant . . . . ?