leaking rear diff

so how bad is it if my rear diff is leaking diff fluid a little bit on my driveway? and is there anything i can do about it?

 

Bad, extremely bad. Go bring it to a shop asap, you don't want to burn out your diff gears.

 

hmmm.. thats not good to hear. what would they do? im taking my truck tomorrow to the cabin for the weekend about 80 miles away.

 

Locate the leak prob. You may never know, you could be losing fluid while you were driving. Did you check the diff fluid plug? If you haven't done that then see if that is the cause, if it is pluged then bring it to a shop.

 

im not exactly sure where its leaking. i just saw it tonight at dusk and havent had a chance to locate the leak.

 

mine leaks, sometimes (i'll see a quarter sized "puddle" every now and then on my garage floor)...i just check the oil level every now and then. i've never had to add btwn changes (every 30k or so)...imho, don't worry about it unless you have a real puddle (i.e., you'll know it when you see it) in your driveway.

 

its alot more than a quarter size. its leakin pretty good. and it looks like its leaking where the drivshaft meets the diff.

 

Oh...yeah that's different, and cause for concern. x2 on krimson's post: Get it checked, now.

 

not what i wanted to hear. im supposed to take my truck to the cabin this weekend and need to use my truck tent.

 

cost-benefit analysis bud...is the trip w/the truck worth the risk?

 

Well think it this way, would you rather take the chance and take a trip to your cabin and pray there's no damage to your rear axle gears or bring it to a shop as soon as you can and get the leak fixed? The repair will be a whole lot cheaper than the damage that will be done to it if you don't fix it. The littlest of things like that causes bigger problems in the long run.

 

yerp, and stranded or driving home with a screaming diff.

 

Yup, i agree. At that point it will be a true locked diff

 

you could change the diff oil. with cheap stuff. measure how much comes out. it should be like 1 1/2 qts iirc. (its in the manual) see how low it is. refill. drive around for a while 50 miles maybe. drain it to see how much is in there to see how much youve lost. drain it into a clean container so you can put it back in. if you didnt lose much in the time driving you might be able to make it. Id be scared the seal is only leaking a little and could just totally fail while driving and you lose all your fluid. to me it wouldnt be worth the trouble to do all that.

as long as the bearings arent bad. it might not be that hard to change the seal. Mr. 4x4 correct me if im wrong....

You would need to take the rear drive shaft off, take the nut lose on the inside of the flange 29 or 30mm??, pull the flange, pull the oil seal and install a new one and reassemble.

 

Ok you guys convinced me. ill take it in. any guesses as to what it could be and how much to fix

 

Ya I think it might be the seal. Now I just have to take it in

 

Good choice, imo.

 

Good choice... There's no way whoever you needed the truck tent for is hot enough to be worth losing the Taco...

 

even if i busted up my diff id get it fixed. im keeping this thing forever.