When you guys fix rear axle seal....

[PNWRunner]

My understanding was the rear axle seal goes out because of excess slop in the bearings... When my axle seal started leaking i pulled the axles and noticed the side that had the leak also had alot of slop in the bearings. New bearings, parts and labor was about $400 at a local shop, the seals cost about $10 each from toyota. I put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes before i set them using a large axle nut socket and they both set the first time.

 

[awpsome]

I'll have to look more into it. I'm going to go to Toyota after this and try to get new seals an maybe a new diff breather plug

 

[Nelsonmd]

My understanding was the rear axle seal goes out because of excess slop in the bearings... When my axle seal started leaking i pulled the axles and noticed the side that had the leak also had alot of slop in the bearings. New bearings, parts and labor was about $400 at a local shop, the seals cost about $10 each from toyota. I put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes before i set them using a large axle nut socket and they both set the first time.

You can get the seal for $5 from Toyota of Dallas. Bearings certainly could play a factor, but it doesn't seem that they are the primary cause (diff breather clog or poor installation seem to be the big 2).

I have heard the freezer strategy, but these seals are so thin and have next to zero heat capacity, so you won't get from the freezer to the axle without ti coming back to ambient temp. It is a much better idea to take your time trying to get it in straight without damaging the seal than trying to do it fast before the seal heats up.

 

[awpsome]

still havent got to this.. anyone got the part number for the diff breather?

 

[Blueman2]

Thanks for the picture!
I checked it even more seems like what's picture on the bottom half, everything is pushed more outward of the vehicle and so it's not really pressing against the oil seal at all.

Unless you had the bearings replaced, it seems unlikely that the parts are mispositioned.

The oil seal rides on the surface of the inner bearing retainer. The position of the bearing retainer and the ABS rotor is important. If the ABS rotor is pressed all the way out against the bearing housing retainer circlip, it is possible for the bearing retainer to be mis-positioned and fail to engage the oil seal. The inside edge (toward the diff) of the inner bearing retainer is supposed to be a specific distance (about 122 mm but I can't find exact number) from the outer surface of the axle wheel mounting flange. My dealer tech expressed his opinion that it is tough to measure this dimension accurately.

If there are any burrs or gouges in the seal mounting bore, they can distort the seal housing as you press it in. Previous techs or owners had left small seal removal gouges on both sides of my axle. I used a dremel with a fine grind wheel to just kiss the burrs and make sure nothing was raised to interfere with the seal.

I have put three seals into the left side and one in the right as part of my work to get them fixed. The right side worked first time. I still need to check my third try on the left.

 

[Nelsonmd]

still havent got to this.. anyone got the part number for the diff breather?

stock replacement is, 90930‑03031 but this won't work for the extension mod.

go to the tutorial and documentation reference sticky and under rear end maintenance, click on the "type R breather mod" He has the right part numbers for if you are extending it.

 

[awpsome]

Sweet man. Thank you!

 

[Leebo]

I'm going to try to tackle both the extended breather mod and replace both left and right seals. I replaced the left seal months ago w/ a National seal but it still leaks. Now the right side is leaking. I bought Toyota seals this time. I really hope I don't have to change the bearings (and ABS wheel and retainers) as the cost goes way up, but will inspect the bearing play when I dig into it.

The question I have for now is how can you regrease the bearings when the bearings are still installed? Isn't access to the bearing plastic seal ring is blocked when the retainers and ABS wheel are installed? Of course I'm going off looking at pictures and my memory from when I had the left side out to do the seal before, so I may be wrong.

 

[Nelsonmd]

I'm going to try to tackle both the extended breather mod and replace both left and right seals. I replaced the left seal months ago w/ a National seal but it still leaks. Now the right side is leaking. I bought Toyota seals this time. I really hope I don't have to change the bearings (and ABS wheel and retainers) as the cost goes way up, but will inspect the bearing play when I dig into it.

The question I have for now is how can you regrease the bearings when the bearings are still installed? Isn't access to the bearing plastic seal ring is blocked when the retainers and ABS wheel are installed? Of course I'm going off looking at pictures and my memory from when I had the left side out to do the seal before, so I may be wrong.

No, you cannot repack the bearings. You would have to pull off the retainer ring to get to it anyway, which isn't easy, but they are sealed bearings anyway. If you just have an oil leak, then there is probably not anything wrong with your bearings. I think if the bearing were so bad as to cause leak problems, you would be hearing that tell-tale bearing whine pretty loudly.

 

[Leebo]

No, you cannot repack the bearings. You would have to pull off the retainer ring to get to it anyway, which isn't easy, but they are sealed bearings anyway. If you just have an oil leak, then there is probably not anything wrong with your bearings. I think if the bearing were so bad as to cause leak problems, you would be hearing that tell-tale bearing whine pretty loudly.

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking so thanks for confirming. I don't have any of the typical bearing symptoms from the rear so I'm hoping the bearings are fine for now.

 

[z4r]

I just did my left side last night, and took some pics. I'll upload them later (hopefully my electricity will be back by then).

BTW, you'll see grease is mostly washed out by the gear oil.

 

[Nelsonmd]

I just did my left side last night, and took some pics. I'll upload them later (hopefully my electricity will be back by then).

BTW, you'll see grease is mostly washed out by the gear oil.

you repacked the bearing or just changed the seal? There may be a way to physically repack it, but they are supposed to be sealed so repacking isn't really going to solve your problem You would have to pull the ABS ring off anyway to even repack it, so you might as well just replace the thing.

Power outage, you in the NE?

 

[doubleA]

i had both rear seals changed for 350 total.

 

[Nelsonmd]

i had both rear seals changed for 350 total.

Ouch.

 

[doubleA]

Ouch.

yep.

all the tools i used to use were my fathers... (he had it all, lift, drops, air tools... etc) well I live far away now and have nothing really excepts a Stanley 50 piece auto set. i should be getting a severance from my current employer when they fire me. i hope to use some it to buy some new equip by year end.

 

[z4r]

Got electricity back (I'm in central Jersey). Simple life had its charm too, but I won't miss it that much :hello:

Anyway here are some of the pics I took last night (before dark obviously).

Pics in order of:

1) axle out
2) new seal in place
3) seal loose
4) seal lifted
5) greased/sealed/put back

 

[Leebo]

Z4R, thanks for those pics! Ah-ha... so you *can* get to the bearing cover with the bearing still in place. That's good to know for the future, possibly near future in my case.

So this past Saturday I started in the garage to do two jobs: 1) differential extended breather mod and 2) replace both inner seals. I did the breather mod and that went really well and super easy. I can say that the old breather seemed to have quite a bit of restriction blowing air out of it which makes me think it was simply clogged and likely the root cause of my leaks. So, in an effort to minimize work and cost, I did that one first and began to consider waiting to see if it leaked any more.

About that time (after about the 15th disruption from my dearly loved 6yr old son), I slipped off some stairs, fell to the garage floor and seriously injured my foot. Progress for the day came to a halt. While icing my swollen foot, I thought some more about the leak and decided to just let it go and see if the breather mod showed signs of a fix. The following afternoon (Sunday), I managed to hobble back into the garage, pulled off both rear brake drums to clean up all the residual oil and grease from the brake hardware and wheels and put it all back together. What a mess, but it had to be done. I topped off the gear oil too. After a fair bit of driving today, so far there are no signs of leaking (yet). Even the brakes felt better (duh, huge surprise there). It might be that I don't even need to replace the seals if I go several more days without any signs of leaks, however since the bearings have likely lost all of their grease, I'm probably going to pull the axles to pop off the bearing covers (thanks again for the pics), fill them with a little grease and swap seals while I'm in there. It could still be a relatively cheap fix given that the bearings seem to be rolling smooth and quiet.

 

[Nelsonmd]

Got electricity back (I'm in central Jersey). Simple life had its charm too, but I won't miss it that much :hello:

Anyway here are some of the pics I took last night (before dark obviously).

Pics in order of:

1) axle out
2) new seal in place
3) seal loose
4) seal lifted
5) greased/sealed/put back

Great pics. Didn't realize you could get that cover off. How did you pry it up without damaging the seal?

 

[maxspeed96ct]

Great pics z4r. I plan on doing my seal this week. Hope I dont have to do the wheel bearing, the wheel seems sturdy but I wont know for sure untill I open it up.

Nice to see the bearings aswell :naughty: