madbomber08
New member
Okay, here's my dilemma. As some of you may know I wrecked the front end of my 4runner pretty bad back in March 2011. I didn't end up getting the whole front end repaired until about the beginning of June and it never got finished until the end of June.
Anyway, soon after I got it back i was driving around with a few friends in a bad rain storm. I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me. No, I didn't ditch it or hit anything again, I just decided to pull off the road because i didn't want the new front end looking the same as it did on that brisk March night. So i pulled into a school parking lot only little did i know that the parking lot was torn up and was being re-dirtworked. I pulled right up next to the building to get partly sheltered from the west blowing rain. I knew right away that I had pulled into a hole of mud because i felt that kind of slow jerk when you just know your going to get stuck. I quickly told one of my buddies to get out and scope out the situation. It took a little prodding and I found out that my rear passenger tire was buried almost half way up--or to the axle housing. I didn't pay enough attention to see if the pumpkin was buried but i really don't think it was.
But not all hope was lost yet. I switched her into 4 high but to my pleasant surprise no 4wd indicator light came on. Well unfortunately it turns out the light wasn't just burned out, the 4wd didn't work! So here I am with my ultra reliable 4runner without and two buddies that are pissed off because they gotta get out in the rain and muck and push me out.
Loooooooong story short (sorry) I had to get pulled out and about a week later I noticed this on my rim....(this is actually the picture of the driver side rim that i just took off. You get the idea but actually the passenger side was a bit more severe as the mystery fluid had leaked onto the inside of the tire.)
Not that it has anything to do with my half assed "mudding" fiasco, but my first thought was a blown axle seal. Then I thought to myself it isn't blown, it's leaking. If that's at all possible.
So I rented a seal driver kit from o'reillys and replaced the seal and the o-ring one saturday morning/afternoon. After lots of cussing and throwing things around between Dad and I, we successfully got the seal in AND replaced the rear diff fluid.
So, the passenger side was done, bearing was checked out by a toyota mechanic and was okay'd (I would've replaced the bearing if necessary.) The passenger side doesn't leak currently.
Now, not more than 3 weeks later the driver side is slowly "leaking" or "seeping." No big explosions on to the rear tire or nothing. My main question is, this is the rear inner axle seal leaking.....right guys? The brake system was just flushed and had new fluid put in, but the reservoir is full. I don't know what else this could be?
(I apologize for the long rant about the parking lot issue. For some reason I figured that was why the rear seal was leaking. BTW in doing this I checked the rear diff breather which was in no way plugged but, even so, I decided to extend it into the gas door.)
Anyway, soon after I got it back i was driving around with a few friends in a bad rain storm. I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me. No, I didn't ditch it or hit anything again, I just decided to pull off the road because i didn't want the new front end looking the same as it did on that brisk March night. So i pulled into a school parking lot only little did i know that the parking lot was torn up and was being re-dirtworked. I pulled right up next to the building to get partly sheltered from the west blowing rain. I knew right away that I had pulled into a hole of mud because i felt that kind of slow jerk when you just know your going to get stuck. I quickly told one of my buddies to get out and scope out the situation. It took a little prodding and I found out that my rear passenger tire was buried almost half way up--or to the axle housing. I didn't pay enough attention to see if the pumpkin was buried but i really don't think it was.
But not all hope was lost yet. I switched her into 4 high but to my pleasant surprise no 4wd indicator light came on. Well unfortunately it turns out the light wasn't just burned out, the 4wd didn't work! So here I am with my ultra reliable 4runner without and two buddies that are pissed off because they gotta get out in the rain and muck and push me out.
Loooooooong story short (sorry) I had to get pulled out and about a week later I noticed this on my rim....(this is actually the picture of the driver side rim that i just took off. You get the idea but actually the passenger side was a bit more severe as the mystery fluid had leaked onto the inside of the tire.)
Not that it has anything to do with my half assed "mudding" fiasco, but my first thought was a blown axle seal. Then I thought to myself it isn't blown, it's leaking. If that's at all possible.
So I rented a seal driver kit from o'reillys and replaced the seal and the o-ring one saturday morning/afternoon. After lots of cussing and throwing things around between Dad and I, we successfully got the seal in AND replaced the rear diff fluid.
So, the passenger side was done, bearing was checked out by a toyota mechanic and was okay'd (I would've replaced the bearing if necessary.) The passenger side doesn't leak currently.
Now, not more than 3 weeks later the driver side is slowly "leaking" or "seeping." No big explosions on to the rear tire or nothing. My main question is, this is the rear inner axle seal leaking.....right guys? The brake system was just flushed and had new fluid put in, but the reservoir is full. I don't know what else this could be?
(I apologize for the long rant about the parking lot issue. For some reason I figured that was why the rear seal was leaking. BTW in doing this I checked the rear diff breather which was in no way plugged but, even so, I decided to extend it into the gas door.)
