Kyitty's Humble Build Thread

Just did my oil change.

Been noticing the "mechanics shop" smell lately. As I went to begin my oil change I noticed dark oily spots under the rear end. This truck has never dropped fluid before.

There is thick black oil on the back end of the fuel tank, under bedside, and on the rear diff. I'm assuming its differential oil. Considering I just took a 700+ mile trip yesterday this really bothers me. Who knows how much fluid has been lost.

To top it off it's Sunday and no shops are open. Worried about driving more and burning up the rear diff gears!

 

Holy smokes, looks to be oil all under there. Hoping it's not anything bad

 

Yeah I'm assuming the diff is leaking badly. Gonna take it to the shop in the morning.

 

Looks like the pinion seal is gone. Should still be enough oil in there that the gears are still ok

 

At 24k miles on the truck what would cause that? Granted it's an ECGS diff... so presumably it's been unsealed before.

As far as I can tell the driveshaft/pinion is solid. No movement for me.

 

The bearing is probably fine so it feels solid but dirt or something has shredded the seal.

Orrr if your diff breather vent is clogged pressure could have built up in the diff and popped a seal.

 

Okay. So turns out it was in fact the pinion seal that was bad. Got that replaced. Dark Horse had to call around to find someone in town that had one in stock though (Toyota dealer didn't, Napa didn't). After picking it up there was a grinding noise when it decelerated. Immediately turned around. Turns out they didn't tighten it down onto the crush seal tight enough and the pinion had some movement in it. So they pulled the driveshaft back off, tightened it down more, and remounted the drive shaft. Driveshaft/pinion had zero play in it when I arrived. No play in it now (though it did have a lot of play when it was making the grinding noise).

Good as new now.

Now I just need to get all the oil washed off the bottom of the truck so the "greasy/oily" smell will go away! You can seriously smell it as soon as you get near the truck.

 

Oh how I despise the smell of gear oil. My Xterra did that to me several times. I had the whole rear end replaced twice. Then they still had to replace seals on it. Gear oil on hot exhaust equals angry driver. Have you checked your breather out?

 

Yeah it's pretty strong smelling ... apparently.

Yes they checked my breather and said it's clear. I did the breather extension mod early on. They said the diff was only 1/2 qt low so I didn't lose too much either. Said the oil looked "used" but they didn't feel it looked dirty enough to justify spilling and filling the diff.

 

Any clues as to why it shit the bed?

 

Nope. Shop says they had a 2016 Tacoma come in with the same problem a 5k miles. Who knows.

 

Glad you got it taken care of. Bummer you've gotta clean all that and it's wintery cold

 

Hopefully it was just a random misfortune that doesn't repeat.

 

Agreed! Not sure what would have caused it at 24k miles on the truck.

 

Got the truck washed today. Single digit temps at the DIY car wash didn't help any. LoL Layers of ice on the truck when I was done. Nothing a warm garage couldn't help with though!

Got her clean and put my new #Pelfreybilt decals on the doors. Can't wait to get a sunny outdoor photo one they've gotten enough time in the warm garage over night to cure.






Also sprayed the under side of the rear end with soapy water in hopes of removing some of the stinky diff oil that had gotten all over. Unfortunately, I can still smell it. Ugh.

 

I have a 2011 im looking to buy a 2011 steel bumper and do a 12+ grill hood and lights upgrade. Will it work? Thanks in advance. Also how much did it cost you to just do the 12+ converaion before you did the steel bumper?

 

I can't tell you anything about 2012 conversions. My truck is a 2015 so everything I've done is for 2012+

 

Installed oem bed mat.

 

next you need to add some extra bed tie downs. Just need to drill these out a little bit.

http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/rope-ring-with-clip-b21-5-for-5-00.html