Leaky Rear Axle Seal/Oil in Bearing?

Anyone here have experience replacing the seals/brake shoes on the 5th gens rear axle?

I was getting my air locker serviced and the mechanic found this issue:

"While disassembling the axle I found an unrelated problem which will require immediate attention. Upon removal of the driver’s side rotor I found gear oil had made its way past the axle seal, through the axle bearing, and into the parking brake assembly. To repair this properly requires replacement of all related parts as the oil has contaminated the sealed bearing assembly washing out the grease, and contaminated the brake shoes. This is an involved procedure due to the nature of the design of the parking brake and bearing assembly. I unfortunately do not have the tooling required to perform the repair, though I can refer you to a trusted shop if you don’t already have one. You will want to have this addressed right away as not only will it continue making a mess, you run the risk of starving the differential of oil."


I spoke with Toyota of Seattle and they denied it under the 5 year/60k powertrain warranty. My vehicle is at 42k miles.

I'm going do this job myself and looking the oem parts I'll probably need the following:

(1) HUB & BEARING O-RING - TOYOTA (90301-83002)
(1) HUB & BEARING OIL SEAL - TOYOTA (90310-58004)
(1) SHOES TRAILING- TOYOTA (46540-60060)
(1) SHOES LEADING - TOYOTA (46550-60070)
(1) GEAR OIL
(1) HUB & BEARING - TOYOTA (42450-60050) - Worst case scenario

Any input will be appreciated! Thank you.

having a nissan before, I have done many, many axle seals.
I'm happy to say I have zero experience with axle seals on my 4r (which is exactly why I bought it). However, I have always replaced the bearing at the same time as the seal, because they're cheap, and it is much easier to remove the seal when you are not concerned with keeping the bearing intact. (I can't imagine doing it without replacing the bearing, honestly)

You should plan to have;

new bearing,
new outer seal and inner seal,
keepers for the ABS ring, (2 required - old ones will be cut off)
new ABS ring, (old one will be cut off)
new e brake shoes

I have never been successful with removing the ABS ring and keepers without damage.

I'm sorry I don't have part numbers for this, and I could be way off base, but I can't imagine this rear axle being much different. In any event, here's a bump.

The 4th gen guys might be very helpful for this.

Seattle206 said:

Anyone here have experience replacing the seals/brake shoes on the 5th gens rear axle?

I was getting my air locker serviced and the mechanic found this issue:

"While disassembling the axle I found an unrelated problem which will require immediate attention. Upon removal of the driver’s side rotor I found gear oil had made its way past the axle seal, through the axle bearing, and into the parking brake assembly. To repair this properly requires replacement of all related parts as the oil has contaminated the sealed bearing assembly washing out the grease, and contaminated the brake shoes. This is an involved procedure due to the nature of the design of the parking brake and bearing assembly. I unfortunately do not have the tooling required to perform the repair, though I can refer you to a trusted shop if you don’t already have one. You will want to have this addressed right away as not only will it continue making a mess, you run the risk of starving the differential of oil."


I spoke with Toyota of Seattle and they denied it under the 5 year/60k powertrain warranty. My vehicle is at 42k miles.

I'm going do this job myself and looking the oem parts I'll probably need the following:

(1) HUB & BEARING O-RING - TOYOTA (90301-83002)
(1) HUB & BEARING OIL SEAL - TOYOTA (90310-58004)
(1) SHOES TRAILING- TOYOTA (46540-60060)
(1) SHOES LEADING - TOYOTA (46550-60070)
(1) GEAR OIL
(1) HUB & BEARING - TOYOTA (42450-60050) - Worst case scenario

Any input will be appreciated! Thank you.

Click to expand...

Any color on why Toyota denied the warranty claim? Did they infer that this was a result of the Air Locker installation?

I didn't mention the air locker to the SA at Toyota of Seattle. I showed him the email my mechanic gave me and he said the seal is a "wear and tear" item which isn't covered by Toyota's powertrain warranty. Their service sucks regardless so I called Toyota of Kirkland(where I purchased it new in 2014). The SA told me to bring it in as it may be covered by the powertrain warranty. They will need a tech to take it apart for a look.

This is the list of items covered by Toyota of Kirkland powertrain warranty:

"Drive Axle (Front/Rear/AWD/4 Wheel Drive): all internal lubricated parts within the drive/transaxle assembly and housing, including axles and axle bearings - constant velocity joints - drive shaft support - differential cover - hub bearings - front hub locking assemblies - drive shaft - universal joints - four-wheel drive actuator."

So hopefully they won't say anything about the air locker or my extended axle breather. Though knowing how dealerships are, I don't have high hopes.

that's a good point; you should go after that warranty claim.

from the toyota manual under "what's covered". PT warranty is 60,000. this is definitely worth a phonecall or another dealer visit.

Thanks for the input, nb Rob.

I was on https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/auto-parts/2014/toyota/4runner/sr5-trim/4-0l-v6-gas-engine/brakes-cat/parking-brake-scat looking at parts I might need to replace.

Based on the schematics, #10 is the HUB & BEARING OIL SEAL and #6 is HUB & BEARING O-RING. I'm assuming #6 may be the outer seal?

I'll be bringing in to Toyota of Kirkland on Saturday for them to take a look.

FWIW - this is commonly done wrong (edit: not by Toyota, but by home mechanics or on trail rigs). If the gear lube went through the bearing - the bearing is done. You can't just replace the seal. The bearing grease has been diluted and will no longer work as intended. Long story short - grease and oil are not the same thing. If you only replace the seal - you'll be doing the bearing in the next year or two and the seal again too.

Seattle206 said:

Thanks for the input, nb Rob.

I was on https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/auto-parts/2014/toyota/4runner/sr5-trim/4-0l-v6-gas-engine/brakes-cat/parking-brake-scat looking at parts I might need to replace.

Based on the schematics, #10 is the HUB & BEARING OIL SEAL and #6 is HUB & BEARING O-RING. I'm assuming #6 may be the outer seal?

I'll be bringing in to Toyota of Kirkland on Saturday for them to take a look.

Click to expand...

Try hitting up thetoyotagarage on instgram. I think the dude who runs it is like a tech or something out of Michaels toyota of Bellvue. They are always building vehicles with aftermarket parts. Might be more aftermarket "friendly" to get you covered under warranty.

Definitely push for the warranty claim, by law they need to supply hard evidence that any aftermarket modifications caused the premature failure.

On a side note, I have air lockers on my todo list of mods. However, I have reservations on inadvertently causing problems during the install process. I'm a big DIY guy but may save this one for the pros. The only problem is that I don't think there are many shops out there that have a ton of experience installing these things.

Excuse my ignorance, but do arb lockers need to be serviced regularly? I have one waiting to get installed.

themuffinman619 said:

Excuse my ignorance, but do arb lockers need to be serviced regularly? I have one waiting to get installed.

Click to expand...

No, but I had mine serviced because I was suspecting a leak from the locker. Turned out to be an internal seal. I've had the locker in for 1 year and some months until I noticed lately the compressor cycling more than once while the was locker engaged. Normally it would hold pressure all day without cycling again. I don't believe it was install error as the system has been functioning fine for over a year, but who knows?

themuffinman619 said:

Excuse my ignorance, but do arb lockers need to be serviced regularly? I have one waiting to get installed.

Click to expand...

I would expect to replace seals internally every 10ish years. They're not expensive, but they do wear out and your do have to pull and partially disassemble the differential to replace them. If you have two, put a piggy bank in the glove box and put $10 in every month. That should be close to the average maintenance cost over time to keep them working.

themuffinman619 said:

Excuse my ignorance, but do arb lockers need to be serviced regularly? I have one waiting to get installed.

Click to expand...

The only thing I have ever done to mine is clean out the air line each time I change the diff fluid. There is no specific service interval. Seals inside the locker are really all that can go bad and you would have to pull the 3rd member to get at those. I've had mine for a few years with no issues. They are pretty much bomb proof these days if installed correctly. You will know the seal has gone bad if the compressor has to cycle to keep the locker on. So they typically don't just fail. They start to leak and may need replacement after 10 years.. IDK because I have never had one that long.

Best case scenario is the dealership covers this under the powertrain warranty. I did get a quote from a reputable shop quoting me near $900.00 for all OEM parts, labor and tax. Looks like I probably won't be able to do this myself as I don't have a hydraulic shop press or the special tools to get the bearing off the axle.

unfortunately, you'll need a press.

a couple of things,

$900 seems really high. There's very few things (if any) that will be toyota parts. Toyota doesn't make bearings and they don't make seals. Insisting on OEM for an axle seal might be an invitation for driving the price up.

Consider calling a local nissan dealership. I'll bet they did 10 axle seals this week. They will have loads of experience, any quite possibly bearings and seals that will fit. It's a well-known issue with their titan, and my buddy's trail-ridden xterra chews through them too.

But hopefully you can get this taken care of at toyota, under warranty.

Good luck!

nb rob said:

having a nissan before, I have done many, many axle seals.

Click to expand...

LOL!!! classic nissan titan. Don't forget about the transmission mount, cracked manifolds, cracked radiator, and ticking time bomb front and rear diff's:spam2:

honda250xtitan said:

LOL!!! classic nissan titan. Don't forget about the transmission mount, cracked manifolds, cracked radiator, and ticking time bomb front and rear diff's:spam2:

Click to expand...

I had all those-- except the rear diff- strange enough! The front differential was the most expensive as I recall

I finally called it quits and put my cracked header money toward a t4r. While I was waiting the 8 weeks for my trail to get here, I had the power steering manifold go too. I got home from nissan after another $900 bill, and there was a message on my answering machine that my 4runner was in.

3 years later and my driveway still smells like expensive oils.

I can spot an axle seal leak at 100 yds now

More than likely who ever installed the locker damaged the seals when installing the locker. You have to pull the axles out a few inches to remove the third member.

You really only need to replace the inner seal and brake clean all the axle oil off the parking brake/rotor ect.

Your wheel bearing will be on borrowed time. But it doesn't mean it won't go another 50k without issue.

You could buy an axle from the junk yard for about a 100 bucks and axle seal from Napa. No need to press on and press off the wheel bearing.

Just an update.

Had Toyota of Bellevue inspect my vehicle for a day and concluded they won't warranty the axles since I have an aftermarket differential in there. They claim that the axles were pulled out to install the ARB so there could have been a chance that the seals might have been damaged then.

The printout I got said "evidence of both rear axle seal leaking". The crappy part was that when I picked up my 4Runner my SA nor the tech who did the inspection was present so I couldn't ask for specifics. The shop that did my ARB service only mentioned in detail that just my driver side axle was leaking, not the passenger.

The dealer only charged me $45(normally $140/hour) for labor. Now, I know when any differential work is done that both axle shafts need to be unbolted and partially pulled out. Wheels, brakes/calipers will need to be removed in that process. I highly doubt the tech spent $45 worth of time removing both axle shafts for inspection. I have a little bit of residual oil run off on the axle backing plates when the ARB was installed/serviced(since a little bit of oil will always spew out when the shafts are pulled). The dealer tech probably noticed some oil around the rear axle housing and wrote it off as leaks found on both sides of the axle.

Regardless, I have Auburn Repair & Offroad doing the full replacement of the seal, hub/bearing and e-brake shoes for the driver side only. I purchased an OEM axle seal for the passenger side(if truly leaking, save the time to do brakes as well) to do myself in the near future when I can get in there for a look.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxWuSt3LFjE" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Update: Received a call back from the dealership SA and confirmed that the tech only did a visual inspection when the vehicle was on the lift.

Changed out the axle seal, o-ring, bearing retainer with Toyota OEM parts. Parking brake shoes with another OE supplier and the hub/bearing assembly by Koyo. Made in Japan and apparently a big supplier to many manufacturers. Saved me $150 going this route over OEM Toyota. Hopefully all stays good for a while before having to do seals again, if ever.