I am replacing my rear axle seals and I gouged my axle housing a little bit with the seal puller. Is this anything to worry about? To me it seems that it's not on the mating surface for the axle seal, right? I am considering putting a little FIPG (or the gear oil permatex) around the seal just for some extra insurance anyway. I was so bummed to have this happen - I was using the harbor freight seal puller and it just poked a couple holes through it before I noticed.
Axle Housing Gouge - anything to worry about?
- Thread starter RumHam26
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
gamefreakgc
Elite Member
The same thing happened to me. Then the oil seal leak again in 6 months. I ended up flipping the retainer so it was backwards and stopped the leak, so it's possible yours will leak again like mine did.
texadelphia
New member
That's not on the mating surface of the seal so I don't see how that could cause any issues.
I had a similar gouge on the actual mating surface and put a thin coat of Dirko grey on it just to be safe. Seems to have held up so far, 8 months later.
Last edited:
Thanks for the confirmation. Just curious, what kind of harm could putting a small smear of sealant around the seal do? I am reading some stories of people having a perfect mating surface, doing everything spot on following the Dr Coffee method and Tim's video, and are still get a bit of gear oil seeping through. I really only want to do this once, and I'm wondering if some sealant could do any harm. I'm certainly open to skipping it, but I'm having a hard time imagining what damage it could do.
texadelphia
New member
My only concern with adding sealant was getting the seal out in the future if I ever had to do the job again. It was hard enough to get out the first time without it being glued in there. Otherwise, I don't see what harm it would do.
The axle surface seems just fine. Using new retainers of course
Hopeless Diamond
New member
When I did my seals, I made sure they rode on the retainer in the correct spot. Passenger side leaked again in very few miles. When I redid it, I put some FIPG around the axle before pressing the retainers on, and also in the housing around where the seal sits. Most of gets pushed out, but it does fill in the tiny voids that the oil can come through. Haven't had a leak since. Looking at the service records, a dealer had changed that side at least twice already, so maybe I finally got it fixed.
I had to do the same thing
Similar threads
