CV Axle Leaking or Fron diff seal?

What seems to be gear oil is leaking from the Smaller end of the inner boot.

Is it likely the front axle seal leaking from there or the could the cv axle actually contain oil instead a grease?

Thank you for all advice.

Im having trouble adding photos btw.

 

Leak

 

Does not really have the smell of gear oil though.

 

Did the Diffy get synthetic gear lube in the past.

 

Could be water mixed with grease and coming out of the cv boot. That’s what it looks like to me

 

I put synthetic gear oil in about 5,000 miles in ago or so. I don’t know whT it had before

 

A lot of people say synthetics don’t ruin seals like they used to. But I don’t have any experience with it, only what I’ve read on here.

 

My point was that synthetic gear lube does not have the brimstone smell that dyno gear lube has.

 

Looks like the boot is leaking grease to me. I had one start to leak after my boot job and I was able to just tighten the boot clamp until it stopped, but if the rubber is cracked and leaking you'll need to replace it.

Get under there with a rag and clean up the area around the clamp to get a better idea of what's wrong.

 

Regardless of what's leaking, I'd say it's important to replace that boot - you've lost lube there, and you've likely also had water infiltration. Here's a guide on rebooting, along with the reasonably cheap parts kit you need to buy.

How-to: Rebooting a Tacoma CV Axle
Toyota makes a reboot kit (04438-04021) for these CV axles, and that kit has nearly everything you need: an inner boot, and outer boot, several boot clamps, some new snap rings, and the appropriate grease.

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