Rear Axle Seals on 04 taco double cab with rear diff lock problems.

My rear axle seals are leaking. Not major, but I want to replace them. Drivers side a little worse than passenger. How does this affect any other parts? Am I just stopping with my front Brakes at this point. How much on average for allnparts needed for completely new seals and drum brake assembly, pads and all

 

I swapped in an elocker axle and rebuilt it in the process. If gear oil is in your brake drums you need to replace your shoes and wheel bearings. If oil gets in the bearings they will fail eventually.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tiffany-the-taco.374490/page-5#post-14771682

 

Just did my drivers side yesterday. Replaced inner and outer seals plus bearing. Did not replace drum or shoes, just sprayed brake cleaner to get most off then took very course sandpaper and roughed up shoes and a little on the drum. I'm sure if your shoes are really soaked and have been for a while they would need replaced tho, mine weren't that bad yet. BTW the guy doing it has over 30 years experience as a certified mechanic.
I got the seals and bearing at NAPA for about $140 for both sides (got a decent discount thru work tho)

 

Here's two comprehensive videos my buddy Sean and I made for this repair (ABS and Non-ABS Rearends). I highly recommend you watch the appropriate video that pertains to your vehicle and learn all the nuances of this repair. It's not just a simple case of replacing a seal and calling it a day. If you don't own a press and don't want to purchase a special axle tool, you'll at least learn how to pull the axles and be able to give precise instructions to a machine or auto shop to do the press work for you. Trust me, shops screw up this repair ALL THE TIME. Even Toyota Dealership Mechanics screw this up and they're suppose to be the experts.

Read the video description because we list a whole bunch of helpful information there too.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AVhSDnw2ugo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vW25hvODHcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Thanks for the tips. With winter coming I'm gonna need Brakes. I'm gonna go ahead and replace both sides seals and brake assemblies. I have 2 kids that ride in the back. I don't skimp on safety.

 

(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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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.