When is a Differential Breather Mod Necessary?

What are the chances of the water getting sucked up in the diff? I was going through trails online and want to hit up coyote trail and there is a part that is deep enough where differential is fully submerged for a decent distance.

 

If it gets past the stock diff even for a few seconds you are risking getting water in your diff. The mod inly costs less than $20

 

yea very simple and very nesscary for sure.

 

what is the best way to go about running it and where did you run it to? storage compartment?

 

Behind the fuel door... there are write ups on here.

 

yea i ran mine from the diff to my driver side cuby hole. then i drill through it. Not very hard you can find the hose at your local auto parts store. I asked for about 7 feet of hose gasoline hose.http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/111954-my-differential-breather-mod-photos.html

 

The other benefit of doing this is that the oem breather doesn't allow the axle to breath very easily when the fluid builds up pressure from getting hot so it puts pressure on your axle seals. I suppose it is made that way to balance keeping water out and letting it breath past a certain point. I had to have axle seals replaced on my 05 and believe this to have been the cause of them needing replacing at only 53k. I got the truck with 48k on it. I did the mod again immediately upon getting the 08 with 51k on it. The mod breather allows easy 2 way breathing. I believe it is more important for the axle seals than it is to keep water out. The pressure thing happens all the time when driving and axle deep water crossings a lot less often for most folks. Mine's up here high and dry...........

 

thank you i will do that. how did you get the cubby hole removed to make the drill?

 

Drilled the hole from the outside in the gas door area. The cubby hole thing is a lift and pull and squish to get it out. Just has little ears that catch and hold it in place. You need it out for access to get the hose on the breather fitting if you put it in the gas door area. If you're putting it in the cubby area then yeah, just pull it out and drill it afterwards.

BTW, the front differential has the breather up high and is one that breaths easy without building up pressure so it isn't necessary to mess with that one according to the 4wd folks.

 

Olson, some of the photos posted above are from my thread on doing the mod... I recommend you click the link to my thread (below in my sig.)... See it all... http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/111954-my-differential-breather-mod-photos.html

I opt for easy, and this mod was easy. The water gets in through the AXLE seals, not the stock breather on top of the diff. By changing the one way breather (lets hot gasses out only) to a 2 way (true) breather up higher, it breaks any vacuum created inside the diff., which is what causes water to suck into the diff. when you drive into a foot or more of water (whatever your axle to ground distance is).

The 2 way breather we use, is the same one that is on the front diff. at the end of a tube... Seriously, the Off Road TRDs (or perhaps all 4WD Tacos) should have the same set up on the back, as it does on the front!