Water in my rear diff breather mod tube

I was under my truck today for a different reason and noticed about a tablespoon of water in the low part of the breather tube to my rear diff. I'd done the breather mod a couple months ago. Because of the droop in the tube, I'm confident none of the water got into the diff, so I drained it and went about my day. But now I'm left wondering where the water could have come from?
No way that much water could have gotten into the other end behind the taillight...

 

I bet it was condensation from your differential- you can see it in the pipe closer to the diff- you must have moisture in your differential and it it venting out when the differential heats up. Have you done any water crossings recently? It was pretty smart of you to use a clear pipe like that, I bet it’s not uncommon to see this happening on others.

 

No water crossings. It's as hot and humid as it gets here, but I didn't think there could be THAT much condensation.

 

Compared to the amount of oil and air in there it really isn’t that much moisture, and since you have a clear pipe you’ll be able to tell exactly how much is coming out of it and should be able to dry it out pretty quickly. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about an oil change if it seems to be drying out.

 

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

That’s actually a lot of water. Could be condensation but water does spray into and behind the tail lights. It’s one of the dirtiest places on my truck when I go down a duty road.

This is just another example of why I didn’t do a breather mod.

 

You aren’t the first to see it.
And other people can’t see because their hose is not clear.

Still no clear answer as to “why”
I read one other post where a guy said his breather “froze” in freezing temperatures after doing the mod.

So who know, looks like it is a 50/50 mod.


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diff-breather-mod-issue.88633/

 

Read how ATF absorbs moisture from the air, wonder if diff oil does this too and releases it as a vapor when hot.

 

If it’s humid, the dew point is higher. This might just be condensation in a humid environment. The water in the air in that tube will condense along the whole length of the tube and then collect at the lowest point just like a glass and coaster. Where I live, a cold glass will condense quite a bit of water out of our dry, 15-20% humidity, air. I would bet quite a bit more is available from a high humidity environment.

 

A cold glass full of an icy drink does that, but that tube doesn’t get that cold, else everything else around it would also be dripping wet, especially the interior of the car. I think it’s from when his differential heats up, the air in it is also hot and expands into the tube- then it cools off and any moisture it carried from inside the differential condensed from it on the insides of the tube. Ot may have taken a while to collect like that too.

 

That's my thought on this mod as well. Been sitting on the materials to carry out the rear diff relocation mod for over a year, but my motto when working on my truck is "first, do no harm"..... I'm not entirely convinced that this mod is a) necessary nor b) better than oem configuration.

FWIW I don't think my Tacoma will ever see a river crossing, just some flash floods and the usual poorly designed drainages.

 

My ARB diff breather has been sitting in the shelf for 5 years. I’ve done several river crossings as high as water spilling over the hood onto the windshield and never had an issue with the stock breathers.

Unless you plan on parking in a river it’s not needed and often overthought.

 

I’ve had the parts to do it since I blew out my first axle seal from a stopped up breather.
The main reason I didn’t do, was because I’m inherently lazy. I know good and well that I wound not crawl under the truck and check the breather if I mount it higher up. It’s easy enough to get to on the axle. I het on one knee reach under and give the breather a “jiggle and twist” to make sure it is free.

Sure, I could move it higher up, in to the cubby (I’m a 2nd Gen) or gas door.
But again, I’m lazy and I don’t want to do the work. And I don’t drive in or across high water.

Do I think the mod is a bad idea? No.
It probably doesn’t hurt, it’s just not some thing I feel like I “need”.

 

I’ve done a few water crossings and all good with stock breather.

I didn’t even do the ac drain mod.