My Axle seal nightmare continues......

My wifes 1998 4Runner blew an axle seal this past June. Monroe did the labor work and I bought all of the parts at Advanced Auto. The parts I bought were axle seals, drum brake pads, wheel cylinder and the wheel bearing. When it was all said and done I had a little over $300 in parts and labor. Last night I went down into my garage to rotate the tires. The same axle seal has blown again 4 months later. Now, I have not called Monroe yet but I have a feeling they are going to say this happened because the new seals were junk and failed. Advanced is probably going to tell me Monroe installed the seals wrong and fucked them up installing them. I should had let my Toyota dealer fix this but was trying to save a buck and look what happened. Anybodys opinion to my situation is appreciated.

 

This happened to me. Not on my tacoma but another car in our family. Did the same thing as you, brought the stuff to a friends shop & a couple months later I could smell the diff fluid & it was seeping/leaking on the inside wheel ...

My friend's shop re-did the work for free. He did say sometimes about the inside of the axle gets burrs? or the seals get put in backwards? I don't know..he re-did it & it has not leaked since over 2 yrs!

Good luck! Hope it works out the same for you with Monroe!

 

The rear axle seals are pretty easy to replace, but you do have to be careful when seating the seal, and when sliding the axle back in not to damage the seal. Marlin crawler has some nice rear axle seals that should work on your axle as well.

 

I had a 98 4 Runner that had the same issue. There is a ring on the axle that is gets positioned under the axle seal. When I had the dealership do my wheel bearing they pressed this ring all the way up to the hub. It needs to be back 2"-3" from the hub.
CS

 

Update.........I dropped my wife's 4Runner off at the dealership last night and they just called me. They replaced the axle seals and brakes and said it was ready to be picked up. I asked him why it was leaking again and he said that one of the seals that Monroe Muffler had installed was pushed on too far. The mechanic said that the axle was fine. My total cost today is $410. I'm pissed but I guess it could have been worse. My wife wants me to call Monroe and raise hell about their work but I don't really see any good that it will do.

 

Yeah I'd call Monroe, especially if you got that explanation in writing from the dealership.