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Hi All, I found the leak below on the rear passenger side wheel of my truck. Not sure if it is brake related or the rear axle seal? My diff breather doesn’t appear to be blocked or clogged. The diff oil was replaced about 9,000 miles ago. Only the bottom of the inside of the wheel has fluid on it, so I’m assuming it’s a pretty recent leak and hasn’t spread all around the wheel.
If your brake fluid level dropping? If I'm not mistaken the rear axle has an old school style seal for the axle shaft maybe that's leaking. Does the fluid smell like gear oil?
If your brake fluid level dropping? If I'm not mistaken the rear axle has an old school style seal for the axle shaft maybe that's leaking. Does the fluid smell like gear oil?
brake fluid level looks good. Fluid doesn’t really have an odor, has a motor oil like consistency. I’m leaning towards axle shaft seal. Haven’t seen much on this when searching the forums, has anyone here replaced these seals?
Gear oil has a strong sulfur smell. If still difficult to determine ... power wash the area, allow to completely dry, and then spray the area in question with a thick even coat of "Gold Bond Foot Powder Spray" ... this creates a jet-white coating that will turn black when any fluid is present. This method is great to pinpoint the source of a weeping leak.
Had the axle seal fixed. Had a shop do it for me. They had to drain the diff oil, disconnect parking brake and remove backing plate to get to the seal. Then reconnect everything, bleed brake lines and refill diff to complete job.
I think I may be the first GX owner to have this seal fail. I searched online and could only find examples of early 2000 4Runners with a similar issue. Thankfully the bearing was still good, so didn’t end up replacing that.
don’t have the part numbers, but it was the axle seal and O ring on the passenger side rear wheel.
Had the axle seal fixed. Had a shop do it for me. They had to drain the diff oil, disconnect parking brake and remove backing plate to get to the seal. Then reconnect everything, bleed brake lines and refill diff to complete job.
I think I may be the first GX owner to have this seal fail. I searched online and could only find examples of early 2000 4Runners with a similar issue. Thankfully the bearing was still good, so didn’t end up replacing that.
don’t have the part numbers, but it was the axle seal and O ring on the passenger side rear wheel.
Make sure your rear diff breather isn't clogged, as I agree this is one of the 1st GX460's I've heard of with axle seal issues, and you'd hate to blow another one out as the root cause hasn't been corrected.
Make sure your rear diff breather isn't clogged, as I agree this is one of the 1st GX460's I've heard of with axle seal issues, and you'd hate to blow another one out as the root cause hasn't been corrected.
Yep, good point and I did check that and asked the shop to confirm as well. Don't want to have to go through this again any time soon!
Help diagnosing leak at rear wheel- #axle #seal
