Differential Breather Mod for Dummies (Pics)

I am a noob, whats this for?

 

Lower the chances of water being sucker into the diff through the breather or axle seals.

 

It may be obvious to others, but why relocate the breather for only the rear diff and not do it to the front diff as well? Does the front diff breathe differently and not require its breather to be raised so it doesn't ingest water?

 

front diff is already done

 

Is the fuel line 1/4" ID and 1/2" OD?

 

Op and I used 1/4" id fuel line.

 

Is the Camary Union plastic or metal ?

 

Metal

 

Thanks for the reply! I'll be doing this mod this week.

 

Like impulse said, the front differential breather comes from the factory in a good location. No need to do this on the front.

 

Which begs one to wonder what was Toyota thinking when not doing this on the rear (at least for all 4WDs or all OFF ROADs)???

We are only going to drive the front half of the truck into 15"+ deep water, but not the back half???

The first time I drove into a muddy water with this truck was when it was 6 mos. old and sure enough, the fluid was milky (water contaminated) when checked after the trip. The fluid was changed, naturally. I changed it again at 40,000 miles as well as the FRONT (for the first time) and transfer case. They all looked great... DO THE BREATHER MOD!

 

Well, sometimes the factory will do a "good enough" solution. Like, maybe according to their figuring the water will evaporate out of the diff and because oil is hydrophobic, diff will still lubricate. They probably also figure 99.9% of Tacoma owners do not drive through deep water on a regular basis.

Another example of "good enough", the lack of an oil catch can for the PCV.

 

I just went through deep water once... so one time is all it takes to contaminate the gear oil. Once your rear differential fails, you are in a world of hurt! At least you can drive a few hundred miles after a water crossing so you have time to change the gear oil. I was 300 miles south in Baja when we all drove through 'The Bog' near Mission Santa María, just after coming down 'The Widowmaker'... Some of Baja's most challenging four wheeling that can be done in a stock vehicle with only minor body damage! LOL

 

I finally did mine last week. I changed the oil the week before and it was still clean and good. After a year of wheeling through many mud holes and water crossings.i guess i got lucky. But i decided to do this mod because everyone swears by it.and you cant go wrong it only cost a few bucks and takes less then an hr.

 

Did it today. Worked great. I put my breather in the big storage box of the bed on the driver side.

 

Did mine yesterday. Removed the driver's side box in the bed, drilled two small holes near the top of the rear wall and used a zip tie to hold the breather hose on the outside of the box. Couldn't see any reason to mount the breather on the inside of the box.

 

Sub'd, can't wait to do this mod...just need the parts!

 

Did this the other day..simple mod but was a PITA to get the fuel line on the breather.

 

You sure you bought the right size line? I had no problems, slid right on.