coincidence?

So I'm in for an oil change at Valvoline and while I'm there I have them do the front differential. Drive 5 miles home and park the truck for a few days and then see a leak underneath. Fluid coming from the axel appears to be an issue with seal. Any chance they jacked something up? Seems weird no issues, shop touches it, drive home and now leaking. They didn't need to lift the truck to do the work so it seems like a coincidence, but I don't like believing in coincidences.
Thanks.

 

Could be an overfill fill issue, I did that once and it gummed up the breather, clogging it, then blew out the axle seals.

Check for oil coming from the breather tube next to the battery.

But also... axle seals wear out, and fluid changes can make them leak faster. So could be natural.

 

Some possibilities.....

They were sloppy and it's residual fluid dripping off the axle.

Is plug tight? Cross threaded? Present?

Maybe you had seal almost ready to fail. By putting correct amount (or too much) fluid has caused seal to fail.

Crawl under with a light to inspect. Clean off with carb cleaner, drive it and check again.

 

It might have been slightly low before and its slightly high before.

It's not uncommon to see the side seals leak. Especially after 10 years.

 

No

 

How do you overfill a diff?

 

Thanks I will check the breather.

 

I slipped some folded paper towel in the gap between the axel and definitely picked up oil there. The plug is tight and is seated well.

 

I know...should have just done it myself. I bring our work trucks there because they seem to do a good job so I thought time to save some time and spend some money. Might not be their fault, but now I won't be saving time or money and I would have know exactly what happened had I did the work.

 

Jacking up only the drivers side to access the fill plug through the drivers wheel well.
Fluid runs down the axle tube on the passenger side. Once the truck is "level", the fluid that ran down the passenger side axle tube runs back into the diff, which is now "over full".

I always recommend jack stands on both sides. Or all 4 corners for the perfectionist (I am not, 2 in the front work for me).

 

You can look at it in a positive way. At least they got the drain plug out for you.
That plug has been known to make a 15 min job, turn into a 2 hr job.

 

Most manufacturers want it 1mm below the fill hole.

Honestly I plug it while its trickling so I can visibly see its been filled. I need confirmation when I'm in zombie fluid mode.

When I'm feeling precise I use a zip tie to see if the fluid is set correctly.

 

Geez. Hopefully when I replace the seal and top off the gear oil the plug only takes me an hour. I

 

I'm assuming Valvoline wasn't doing the fluid exchange on a jackstand in the parking lot but who knows..

 

I doubt it.

But I was just saying "How it can be done".

 

K. Front diff fluid change.

1st of all. Change drain plug washers with genuine parts. Do they stock that? No.
2. Clean any residual spill with brakleen. Do they do that? No.

I would say you can spray leak detection spray, after a cleaning, to observe. But that is something one does after a job has been done properly, not improperly.
If it is done improperly, you will have a leak and need to do it properly.

This can be done on the floor outside.

 

Oh I know, I'm just being snarky

It's possible they just slopped oil around filling it. I'd clean it up and monitor

 

Yeah. It's possible.

Brake clean and a rag seem to be hard to come by a quick lube shops.