How common is a pinion seal leak in 3rd gens?

[xspsi6]

My wifes 99 limited with 266k on itt is suffering from bad wheel seal leakage so I was going to fix this as I bought all the parts to have ready however when I got it on the hoist I saw what appeared to be a pinion seal leak but I am curious if this is a common problem and if so maybe I should go to the junk yard and look for better one?

no noise or vibration yet but rear brakes are inop due to axle seal leakage.

 

[4eigner]

When my vehicle had a little over 100k on it, I was already plagued with this issue. From what I've seen it seems relatively common. Even if the brakes are currently dry in the back doesn't mean that the seals aren't leaking. If you're going to a yard to find an unaffected axle, remove the abs/wheel speed sensor from both sides to see if any gear oil made its way onto the teeth of the abs ring inside.

 

[xspsi6]

My 01 is good bur my 99 is out of control but I may just look for a good one at the yard for the 99 and start there.

 

[Buckaroo]

So I'm a little confused. Are you talking about the rear diff pinion seal? That leak would occur on the front nose of the rear diff (not near the rear axle seals)...that seal is not terribly difficult to replace and I would not recommend you replace the whole rear diff (or have it rebuilt replacing the bearings) UNLESS the fluid level was allowed to run low. This could occur due to the pinon seal and the real axle seal leaks. In any event, I don't think I would replace the diff unless I was getting noise. Regarding the axle seal leaks, yes, this will gum up the brakes and should be replaced. Again, not hard to do BUT you may very well want to replace the rear axle bearings along with it. Recently had rear diff rebuilt and replace rear axle seals/bearings on my 2000SR5 4WD Auto.

Buckaroo

 

[xspsi6]

So I'm a little confused. Are you talking about the rear diff pinion seal? That leak would occur on the front nose of the rear diff (not near the rear axle seals)...that seal is not terribly difficult to replace and I would not recommend you replace the whole rear diff (or have it rebuilt replacing the bearings) UNLESS the fluid level was allowed to run low. This could occur due to the pinon seal and the real axle seal leaks. In any event, I don't think I would replace the diff unless I was getting noise. Regarding the axle seal leaks, yes, this will gum up the brakes and should be replaced. Again, not hard to do BUT you may very well want to replace the rear axle bearings along with it. Recently had rear diff rebuilt and replace rear axle seals/bearings on my 2000SR5 4WD Auto.

Buckaroo

sorry for lack of info just 2wd so the rear pinion I suspect is leaking as well as the bad axle seals so a combo of problems but no noise.