can anyone tell me what happened here

Saw a puddle of oil under passenger side of 2005 truck. Looked and this is what I saw. How in the world did the axle pull away from the housing or did something else happen?

 

If I'm seeing that right, it looks like the seal is leaking, as opposed to the axle popping out.

 

X2 the axel looks good just snafu seal

vvvvvv Good advice right there too

 

The axle will have a little play in and out. You probably will need to replace the seal and since you'll be in there get the ECGS bushing too.

 

Thanks guys. Already did the bushing and put this axle and a new seal in at the same time back in june. Why the gap between the dust cover and housing? It use to be flush against the housing and I thought the snap ring would keep it flush. This is passengers side btw.

 

Doesn't look right to me.

 

Here's the drivers side to compare position of dust cover

 

c-clip on the end of the axle break?

 

That's what I'm wondering but have no idea how that would happen or if it would allow the axle to shift that much.. Think it caused any damage?

 

If the clip was floating around in there it definitely could. I would definitely pull the axle and check.
Also how's your alignment? I wonder if the LCA was "adjusted" all the way out would it give the axle this added play?

 

Alignment seems fine. Whatever hapoened just happened today. I used 4 wheel drive briefly today to climb a steep hill is all out hunting.

 

well, if you can pull the axle out of the housing as it sits, the clip ring fell off or broke.

 

OEM replacement axles or aftermarket ?

 

OEM axles. No issues with it for several months then all of a sudden this happened.

Anyone ever have a c clip fail before? Did it cause any other damage?

 

C clip is made out of very soft metal, 9 out of 10 times simply gets chewed by gears and ends up on the bottom of differential as mangled pieces of metal. I would not worry much about it. Fix axle so it sits better, change diff fluid while you at it.

 

How would you "fix the axle so it sits better"?

 

got it tore apart and everything looks fine but something had to have pulled that axle out.the LCA is one possible cause but not sure why all of a sudden it would be after 100k miles.

Anymore ideas? obviously I am concerned about it happening again.

 

Starting to wonder if it ever got seated properly.....not sure I used four wheel drive much since I installed the axle in june.

 

i had an axle popping out just like yours, it is because of the c clip.
go get a new c-clip, put that on and put it in again and you should be fine. thats what i had to do to get it to stay in there.
no other damage was caused because the ring stayed on the axle, it was just really weak and didnt hold the shaft into the diff.

 

Thanks for the info. I inspected the c clip and it looked fine, but the thought did cross my mind to replace it. However I opted not to and really wish I did now. I will keep an eye on it and if it happens again definitely replace it.