Rear axle seal problems..AGAIN

So a diff breather located to a location that will not corrode will solve all these problems.

I'm at the 3 year mark with my truck. Still no issues regarding the list of things you mentioned.

 

Did you ever figure out the answer to this?

I'm trying to figure out which parts to buy for my non abs elocker axle which I bought for a swap, but am unsure of what year it's out of. Definitely pre-03 since it has the ebrake cable over the leafs, but other than that how can I tell what bearing type I need?

 

Honestly, I don’t remember. I broke down and ordered seals and the bearing from CamelBack shortly after this post just to be certain. Nothing like OEM, right? Perhaps if you contacted Gunny, I’m sure he would have more insight. I’m not 100% certain but I thought the Elocker housing was the same whether it be from a ‘99 or an ‘04. With it being a non-abs but an Elocker housing, you will certainly have to get bearings that are compliant with abs, but you should be able to ditch the abs tone ring.

I’ve yet to replace it mine. I figured that if it was leaking, the damage to the bearing has already been done. So far, it still isn’t leaking much. I inspected it with the drum off not long ago and found very little if any signs of leakage, certainly not enough to get in the bearing or on the shoes. so I have yet to do anything further just because of the hassle I had already been through.

 

(for people who search in the future and find this thread...I know Timmy the Toolman has detailed videos for this job, but I thought it would be nice to have a printable step by step write-up to follow as well)

Just a heads up that I had to replace the rear axle seals on my 3rd gen 4Runner and 1st gen Taco - both in the last month. Required a few special tools, and of course the requisite parts, but was a reasonably straight forward job (full story).

Wrote up the list of tools needed, all the parts (with numbers) and a detailed step-by-step guide in a printable format here:

Step-by-Step Replacing Rear Axle Seal & Bearing w/ABS (1st gen Tacoma or 3rd gen 4Runner)​

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Quoting these 2 post.... this happened to me too !!!

1st time was aftermarket parts and labor $580 wasted down the drain
it hold up for about couple of years until I noticed the oil coming out of the wheel.

2nd time December 2018 Toyota dealership did the job
it hold up for about 5 months then I started noticing noise coming out that wheel

I took it back to dealership since was just 5 months of their repair... they couldn't mimic the noise ... took it to my mechanic and he made video of the issue... then back to dealership , ride with toyota tech whom did the job on Dec/18 and by turning constantly to the right we were able to mimic noise x5 times

3RD TIME Toyota Dealer hold my truck for about a week. re-ordering OEM parts. the damn seal that you mentioned failed and they did the whole job again under warranty , ( I have new axle in that area and whole list of parts installed Dec /2018 )

I drove to NM and Mexico, etc places ... about 3,000 plus miles,.... I have not check again the wheel with my mechanic but for sure I will do before end of November.

This axle seal job is a pita I got to pay dealer to do it right !
Hopefully 3rd time was the Champ .

 

it's a HUGE pita if its not done right from the get go! Since my last post in this thread I may have taken off taken off the drums once (trying to figure out a bounce under braking), but I do not recall seeing anything leaking. So for now, I am turning a blind eye to it and concentrating on other small(ish) issues

 

Excellent write-up @turbodb! Next time around (which will hopefully be a VERY long time) I plan on buying my own press and SST to press out the bearing and tone rings now that I have the space to permanently store a press.

 

I guess the ultimate flattery is somebody duplicating your work in another form. I've seen this done before where a guy prefers write-ups over videos. You obviously put in a lot of time to create this write-up and I guess write-up fans will love you for it. I prefer videos over write-ups and i guess that's why I have a YouTube channel and make videos. Write-ups are 2-dimensional and don't offer near the detail a video can. But, you know what they say, to each his own. Some like chocolate ice cream while others like vanilla.

 

I have a 2002 pre runner which I believe also has an ABS rear end but does not have ABS (I think I can spot the blocked off ABS sensor port in some pictures I took). Does this mean that my axle seal is recessed into the axle housing like in Timmy the Toolmans 4runner video? Or is my axle seal still flush with the end of the axle housing like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRgkaYlrWLU

 

If you have an ABS rear end (even w/o ABS), then your seal will be further in (as in the photo below).

 

All
These rear ends are very prone to the vent breather getting plugged and then the path for vent tries to go out the wheel seals or pinion seal. An easy path of prevention is to remove the check ball breather on the axle, thread in a barb adapter then run a hose up behind the tail light. Then use another dual barb adapter in the end of the hose and adapt a K&N style valve cover breather to the end of the hose. Secure it in with a hose clamp w/ eye & sheet metal screw and your done. I did this years ago when I converted my 2003 rear axle to a TRD push button E-locker when I had @ZUK rebuild the eBay donor locker and put a truetrac in the front and more recently to my brothers 06 TRD when his had the dreaded wheel seals leak. I was helping him change all the misc F&R axles, trans and transfer case fluid and upgrade with good syn oil and magnetic plugs. When I pulled the rear fill plug the plug shot out into my hand as the rear axle was pressured up. The wheel seal leak dried up after the axle was properly vented.

 

Great recommendation, and easy to do: Step-byStep Rear Diff Breather Mod – Why didn’t I do this sooner? – AdventureTaco

 

is this true even for the Tacoma? If I have an ABS backend with no ABS (which I believe I do since I have a plastic cover over the ABS port, see pic below) - then what surface does my axle seal ride on? No ABS means no ABS tone ring which should mean no second bearing retainer either (which is where the oil seal normally rides). This is what is shown in the FSM too (see below). So what the heck am I missing?

 

"Even for the Tacoma?" - You had me there for a minute b/c I was like... "even on?" since we're on TW. But then I realized the photo I posted was actually of my 3rd gen 4Runner, hahaha. Assuming you caught that, in which case, good work!

If you have an ABS housing, I think the only place that the seal can sit is in the race that is inboard of the ABS tone ring. You'll still have two retainers (I believe) and you might even have the tone ring on the axle shaft (though, it's unused/does nothing in that case).

Do you have an e-locker? If you do, all e-locker housings are ABS housings.

 

haha yea I recognized your name and learned you had a 4runner a long time ago when I was looking at your drum brake tutorial (awesome btw) and couldn't figure out for the life of me why it wasn't matching the tacoma FSM lol.

I do have an e-locker, so yea I should have the ABS housing.

I'm just not convinced that I have a tone ring OR a second bearing retainer for the seal to ride on (since the FSM pictures I posted above don't show it). And because of that, I'm totally confused as to where my oil seal is located (recessed or not) and what surface it's sealing against. I'd like to take it off and replace it myself, but I don't have a press to be messing around with popping off bearing retainers and flipping them around and what not. I was hoping my seal was NOT recessed because that seems like a little easier of a job I guess (are the "redesigned" seals still problematic in this case?). Idk maybe this isn't a job for me haha. sounds like it requires a little more finesse than I'm capable of giving it.

 

Yeah, if you have the e-locker, you definitely have an ABS housing and so the seal is going to be recessed.

Regardless of which axle/housing you have, you'd still need to get at least one retainer off (and back on) to replace the bearing (which you should do if you've had gear oil leaking through it). So, you'll need to press either way.

As for the FSM, what it means when it says "with ABS" is "with ABS housing," which is confusing for folks unfamiliar with the way Toyota does things, but pretty normal for Toyota.

Here's a couple suggestions -

1. you can remove that bolt that holds the cover over the ABS sensor port. Then, you can look in there and see (a) if you have the tone ring; there's a good chance you do and (b) you might be able to get a better look at the axle situation.
2. You could always just pull the axle (it's only 4, 14mm nuts to disconnect the backing plate from the axle housing) and have a look in there. You wont mess anything up (any more than it already is) doing that. Will answer your question for sure!

Edit: BTW - for the T4R vs. Taco (since I have both) - while the FSMs and components are sometimes different, they are so close that it's never an issue to use either FSM/diagram/photo, because you can easily translate "on the ground." At least, that was my experience. (And of course, sometimes you need different part numbers, which I always try to call out in my guides.)

 

I recently did all of this on my 98. I found a timmy video which I typically use for all of my 1st gen know-how. I purchased all oem parts and rebuilt the brakes as well. I had a shop that specializes in drivelines put my bearings on for me. I showed and explained to the guy the bearing pressed on opposite and he was totally against it. I decided to go with his plan and it's been quite a few months and driving with no problems at all. My rear bearings were pretty bad and probably oem that he took off. I have a non locker, non abs so poverty spec 3.91 rear end. I purchased new diff plugs too as they tend to not be in that good of shape. One of those things that I wouldn't go aftermarket on any of it.

 

omfg "with ABS housing" makes so much sense I'm almost embarrassed haha.

Agreed I should do bearings as well, just wondering if I could put it off for a little longer. It looks like I have a "slow" leak (I guess?) - dried up oil in the drums and a little bit of staining on the backing plate. The problem is, I need new drums and shoes right now regardless. Do you think it's a dumb idea to change the drums and shoes now but leave the seal and bearings alone for now and tackle them later? I guess my hope is that the leak was only due to a clogged diff vent (and not a true seal failure) and replacing that will fix the problem for now (and keep my new shoes clean). But if I ever get the full on "oil spun onto the wheel well" leak, I'll 100% replace the seals and bearings then. what do you think?

 

Personal opinion is that if you're going to replace the seals, you should replace the bearings at the same time.

If you didn't have oil splatter onto the wheel wells however, I'd be inclined to clean everything up well with brake cleaner, make sure that you've got the breather situation fixed (relocated), and then wait to see what happens. The seal/bearing job isn't difficult, but why do it if you don't have anything continuing to leak? (would be my approach). I'd also not replace the brake shoes (after a good cleaning), at least for a while, because I wouldn't want to ruin brand new shoes if the leak does appear in a month or two.

Over that month or two, you can get a better sense of whether you need to replace the rear shoes at all, and my guess is that you won't have to, if the leak doesn't return.

 

^^