2004 6 cylinder is leaking from rear differential

How would you guys sudjest fixing this? Thr part is 1200$ with another 1000 in labour having it done at a dealership. Should I try and find a weld shop that will weld plates on it? Should I look for a southern used part that doesn't have any rust? What should I do? I don't have 2000+ right now to fix this.

 

Where is it leaking from? There are many areas a rear diff could leak from.

Gotta give us more information.

 

Ok pictures are coming. It's leaking out of the bottom of the housing. Not right out of the bottom bottom but the bottom of the back face plate. It looks to just be permeating right through the metal.

 

Had the same problem with my '99.

I bought this thing and had a local shop weld it on for me. Took them about an hour to grind off the old material and weld the new on. Cost me around $150 between labor and new gear oil. Plus it's thicker steel, so it gives you a lot more protection than the old cover piece did. I think that the total cost for the part, the shipping, and the install was less than $250.

http://www.barnes4wd.com/Toyota-Pick-Up-Heavy-Duty-Differential-Cover_p_228.html

Edit:
One thing you may want to have the shop do is weld a bead into the inside edge of the fill hole (or maybe weld a nail across it, or a washer, etc) before they weld it onto the truck, because there's nothing to stop the fill plug from screwing all the way in and dropping into the diff. The mechanic nearly did exactly that after he'd welded the new cover on; he was just screwing away on it and realized that he was about to thread it right thru the diff cover and lose it. We ended up putting some silicone diff sealant onto the threads to hold the plug in place.

Edited Edit:
Just realized that I don't know if you have the E-Locker or not. If you don't you'll need this cover plate instead.

http://www.barnes4wd.com/Toyota-T100-1996-and-Newer-Tacoma-and-1999-2006-Tundra-Heavy-Duty-Differential-Cover_p_359.html

 

What is the E-locker?

 

An option on the Tacoma's was an Electrically locking rear differential, or E-Locker. If you have it there will a button on your dashboard labeled "RR DIFF LOCK"

 

My concern would be if the housing has rusted through at THAT spot, where else could it be about to rust through, or even break? This is just me, but if I saw that much rust, and an area had rusted far enough to cause that leak, I would be looking at getting a new housing. I wouldn't risk that something I COULDN'T see may be close to breaking.

 

Well, what I found with my '99 was that the entire 3rd member was made out of good, thick, heavy duty steel and iron, except for that rear cover. The whole thing is very ruggedly built, but for some reason (probably for cost cutting purposes) Toyota chose to weld thin gauge sheet steel on for a diff cover piece. That's the piece that rusted out and started to leak on mine. When we ground the old cover piece off we checked the rest of the 3rd member over and it was solid as hell.


Edit: The piece that rusted out is basically just a diff cover. We used to replace diff covers all the time on non-Toyota trucks (seemed like mostly Dana 35's and 44's) at the garages I worked at because of rust, but the diff housings and the axle tubes themselves were always as solid as if they were brand new.

 

Ok now would you sudjest just cutting the old one off and then doing our best to rinse all the gears and guts in the diff. with break cleaner or whatever then welding it on and after a couple hundred mikes replacing the oil and removing any metal on the magnet OR taking all the gears and guys out of it when throughly cleaning everything. Second option is going to be much more expensive. Not sure if it's nessisary. Thsnks for the info guys. I'm buying that new plate now.

 

Shrug. The shop I took mine to took the old plate off with an air tool, then switched to a grinder and smoothed out the surface they'd be welding to. They sprayed the inside of the diff down with some sort of parts cleaner and blew it out with an air gun. They let the parts cleaner evaporate, checked the cover for clearance, and one guy held it in place while another put a pair of tack welds on to hold it in place. Then they checked it for clearance again (spun the tires to make sure the ring gear didn't contact the plate at all) and did the rest of the weld. They filled it up with gear oil, checked it for leaks, and off I went. I kept periodically checking it for leaks for a month or so after that, but never had any more trouble with it.

One thing you'll want to make sure of is that the shop has a good, high quality welder and somebody who knows how to use it correctly. A crappy buzzbox isn't going to lay a nice smooth bead that you don't need to worry about leaking. And somebody who's a welding hack will have the same problem.

 

Yeah, the removable 3rd members have always been a strong axle though. While the Dana and GM styles are much easier to inspect and work on. I have no doubt that the "cover" on the truck can be cut and ground down, and a new plate installed. My concern would be to have the ENTIRE housing inspected before taking the money onto that. It may be just fine, like you said, but it needs to be inspected thoroughly.

 

bamatoy is correct, if your housing is that rusted i would be concerned about the rest of the axle. your easiest is to find a west coast bare axle housing and just swap the parts over. I have seen empty housings for as little as 40 bucks.

 

Yeah, I definitely don't disagree that the housing should be checked over before bothering to weld the new piece on. Like I said, I had them make sure the rest of my housing was solid before they replaced the cover, since I didn't want to be throwing good money after bad, haha!

If the rest of his current housing is in good shape, it's far easier to weld on a new cover than it would be to drop the old housing, swap the parts, replace all of the seals, and reinstall with new leaf spring U-bolts.
Cheaper, too.

 

depends. one is a bolt on deal and one requires some fab work. I know i could weld on a cap for under 50 bucks easy. however, that housing is fucked lol. it probably would be a good idea to do some basic maintenance on it as it looks like it has never been touched.

 

What kind of basic mantainence are you talking about? Just for future reference. I've owned the vehicle for 2 years. Also the black crap you see in the pictures is some crap I tried to fix the leak with. I can scrape that stuff right off I just haven't yet. Some rubber sealant crap. Obviously didn't work. It seems to me the rest of the housing is solid. I will show it to my mechanic tho. I hope it's ok be I ordered the housing and I can't really afford 2000$ to put a new one in. Not sure where you guys find used parts but I could not locate any used southern housings today.