differential leak!

2005 tacoma 4.0 automatic prerunner...leaking differential 109k miles

gf at toyota ordered a differential seal, hopefully thats the problem. truck wont get looked at till friday

whats the worse that could happen?

 

you could run out of oil, your gears and bearings will starve and you'll need to buy all new shit. do not let that happen.

 

damnit! i know that but i meant whats the worse thing that could be causing the leak

 

I have no idea, are you sure it's a leak? pics would help, if it's coming from the fill hole, it's not a leak, it's just spillage. Have you checked to see that there is less oil in it than when it was last filled?

 

The *worst* thing that could be causing the leak is an actual broken diff housing, at which point you'd need to replace the whole third member.

 

Where's the oil coming from?

 

the oil is kinda everywhere, hard to tell where its coming from definitely not the fillhole though. jeez!!! im worried

 

Sounds like you should be. You should definitely pull the fill plug and top it off. Then give it a good cleaning and try to see where it's coming from.

Did you look at the breather on top?

 

mine leaks too

 

x2. This is what I would do.

 

That's GOT to be from the breather. Notice it's dripping down from above the fill plug. I hope you took care of that.

 

^ No, I'm pretty sure it's in pieces

 

Did he explode the housing or what?

 

he "grenaded" it http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/85698-gernaded-my-rear-diff.html

 

Tends to happen to the E Locker Diffs

 

really? why?

 

Instead of just "topping off" your diff fluid, you should drain it completely and refill it. This was you can measure how much comes out, so you'll know how much you lost already. That will give you an idea of the speed of the leak. You can then add more fluid if necessary before the new seal comes in.

 

The ring and pinion are notoriously weak. Kinda sucks since alot of people actually use them to offroad.

 

^^ they said a ring and pinion bolt broke and then tore everything up!

 

Then yours is a fluke. There is a massive list of people who's gears just broke all on their own. I don't really see how a bolt would ever just come out.