I have a 2002 4runner, 150K miles and live in the northeast where we salt the roads.

This spring the truck started leaking on the back of the rear axle housing. I don't think there is a seal back there, and it almost looks like the oil is weeping through the rust flaked metal of the rear axle housing. I took it to the dealer and they wanted a grand for the new rear axle housing, and assorted other parts, which came to a whopping $2700 before tax.

Any thoughts for an alternative fix?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Get a used axle or housing from a wreckers, swap over the 3rd from yours if the gears are different. Changing an axle is an easy job.
If you were a month sooner you could have had the one from my 2001, rust free. I gave it away because I got fed up with it taking up space in the garage.

 

How about some pics of the leak, so we can better see what you are up against here.

 

yep, time for a new axle housing. I too am up here in the northeast and have seen many come through the dealer I work for rusted and leaking. as well as the one in my T100 did the same thing.

 

My friend had a hole in his housing and he was able to patch it with a welder. Maybe you could try the same thing

 

Thats another option, as long as you have good metal to weld to. If it's really bad it'll just rust through somewhere else.

 

Thanks for the input.
Here are some pictures.





Do they give any other ideas?
Thanx

 

I could be way off here but even though you have an incredible amount of rust on it for an 01 I don't think it would have rusted through the housing. Could have but unlikely.

In the second pic you showed in the previous post it looks like the leak may be from the drain plug. I know that does not seem to make sense but looking at the fluid on the leading edge of your spare tire it might be that at highway speed the leaking fluid is being spread to the trailing edge of the houseing and some of it is coming off and hitting the spare also.

Like I said, maybe.

I would suggest lowering your spare tire out of the way and going to town with a wire brush or wire wheel and get all that scale off and then see what is really going on. Then leave a piece of clean card board under it at night and see if you get any drips that you can tell came from the plug or the cleaned up housing.

I would agree with the others that buying a new one is not the best option if you do need to replace the entire houseing. Like stated an axle swap is not too bad.

Man I do not miss the salted winter roads up north!

 

Yep, clean up the axle and see where it is leaking. Breather could be burping.

I worked on an 01 2 years ago that had 40K miles on it from up north and it was a rust bucket. Thank God I live in Alabama where the elements don't destroy cars in a couple years.

 

Is the diff breather on the top left side of the rear differential (when facing the direction of travel)? If so, I did not see any oil in that area.

I will try to clean off the oily areas and get a better look at where it is coming from.

 

wrecking yard, craigslist, searchtempest. type "parting, selling parts, etc" sometime you will find a rollover too. good luck keep us updated!

-surfer

 

Hi guys,
I just wanted to close the loop on this problem.
I took the truck to a mechanic friend to have it checked out. He concurred that the metal on the diff cover was corroded and "porous" and the cause of the leak.

He knew of a guy who could fabricate and weld on a new lower portion cover.

Here is a pic.



The welder fab'ed up seven pieces to make the new cover. I am quite pleased and think the guy did a really nice job.

Hope this puts this issue to bed for me.

Thanks for the help.
Bob
(edited to add pic)