Rear Axle Shaft Seal

I'm saying the hose, it all depends on conditions. The hose literally fills with vented gear oil vapor, then over time causes a restriction.

I'm not saying yours will or will not, but it's possible and people need to check the hoses.

Neither of the two trucks that blew seals last year had plugged breathers. It was the hose. One had the oem breather relocated, one had an aftermarket breather.

 

I agree anything is possible but much less likely that just leaving the original one way vent in operation.

And I am a firm believer in changing out the original diff lube quite early (certainly not at what I think is 60K per toyota)

Its full of fine metal wear particles that must act like valve grinding compound on the diff bearings and seals.

 

Thanks for posting this. I was looking for it also to not only help out but also to add to my own fix shit book.

 

I appreciate everyone's responses and input.

Went to the dealer today and while they agree it CAN be covered under warranty, they want to do an evaluation first. If they find something "damaged" it won't be covered under warranty and I'll have to pay $185 evaluation fee regardless if I choose to continue and have them do the repair, which of course I'll have to pay them for.

And before the day was over one of their salesmen pulled my file and called me trying to convince me to trade up for a 4th Gen.

 

this is such a frustrating part of the Toyota dealership experience. When you have an Audi under warranty they don’t threaten you with $185 fees to look at the issue. At least not in my experience. They look at it, they fix it. Or they tell you a cost and you can accept or decline.

Now there are a lot of great aspects to owning a Toyota which is why we are all here. I had to deal with something like this under BUMPER TO BUMPER warranty that basically if nothing was wrong I had to pay for their time.

 

100% BS.. They can evaluate it as they are repairing it. Its broken, its under warranty.
Doesnt cost $185 to pull off one rear wheel to see the oil

 

I agree. They're just gearing up to hopefully get some money out of people.

I just got a call, they says it's a "flat" seal that has gone bad and it is covered under warranty.

I asked if they were changing the break shoes as well they said no. I told them to double check on that again as I don't want oily breaks going back in.

 

Called back again.
Claim the leaks wasn't bad and that the shoes cleaned up fine and are good to go back in.

I asked to see some technical data saying that is the case...

 

If oil got on the brake shoes they cant be "cleaned up". And if gear lube got into any bearings they have to be replaced since it will wash out/dilute the grease they contain.

 

How would you tell if those bearings go oil in them?

 

I went through some giant hassles with the local Toyota dealer with a leaking rear axle seal on my '21 TRDOR last fall. Truck had approx. 28k miles on it at the time.

While having the vehicle serviced at a local well-respected Toyota mechanic (I had used up the free oil changes from the dealer), he noticed a leaking rear axle seal. Since that was still under warranty, I took it to the local dealer. They refused to even pull the rear wheel off but were somehow able to announce that there was no leak. They patted me on the head and basically said move along now. The service "manager" would not return calls.

After determining that even if that dealer had been willing to do their job, they proved themselves not to be trusted. So I took the truck to Mountain States Toyota in Denver. They pulled the wheel, saw the problem, and addressed it promptly and under warranty. Can't say enough good about them.

The leaking seal seemed to fall under the category of "sometimes it just happens," nothing I did or didn't do. Good luck to you, hope things get resolved to your satisfaction. Sometimes Life is just unnecessarily damned complicated.

 

Hello, fellow engineer asking the right questions…

 

Any oil that leaks past the axle seal has to go past the axle bearing to get into the shoe. The oil then slings onto the shoes and drums, which then absorb and hold the oil.

You need photos of the drum off and shoes exposed next time.

Tell tale sign of a slow axle leak is rather than brake dust there's "peels" like woodworking instead of normal dust.

It's crazy they didnt warranty it, most places are slow in February. We would have warrantied it no questions.

Minimum would have been axle seal and wash brakes, not clean oil off shoes and call it good.

 

I've just learned to ask questions having to deal with contractors and equipment manufacturers for years with warranty parts and service exchanges.
If you ask them to see a diagram, one-line, or something in writing with an official letter head saying it is approved it really goes a long way to keep them from passing the buck.

They called back and said they would do the shoes AND thr drum but they aren't in stock so my truck won't be ready till tomorrow evening.

I don't see why they needed to do the drum but oh well. Maybe I can ask for the old one as a spare.

 

Coming from a nissan the toyota warranty service experience has been a joke.
Have a young nissan, bring to any nissan dealer and they'll look at it, no inspection fee.
Brand spanking new tacoma and the dealership wants to keep it overnight to determine if there is damage first with 200 bucks upfront because i didn't buy it there

 

I had a seal leak on my '17 Taco somewhere around 25k -30k. Local Toyota dealer replaced the seal and brakes under warranty.

I then swapped out the short breather on top of the axle with a long hose and lawn mower fuel filter tucked behind my driver's tail light.

Both of my front diff seals started leaking between 50k and 55k. Noticed it when I pulled the skidplate for the oil change.

I will be replacing them myself this spring when it hits 60k and time for oil change and weather isn't all liquid and cold.

 

For those facing this in the future and out of warranty: This is a common issue with Tacoma's and it happened to the drivers side on my 02 years back. I was quoted over $700 back in 2010 from a local shop because they "need to be pressed". This may be true but not necessary to complete this repair.. I ended up bringing it to a buddy and he fixed it in about 30 mins..

In 2017, I noticed it on both sides of my '03 once I got in home from buying it. I fixed them both in the driveway and it's not that difficult to repair.. You can unbolt the the axle and the whole thing will slide right out. The seal is right there.. pry it out with a screwdriver.. hammer a new one in with a socket and Bob's your uncle.. The only complicated/time consuming part is all the clean up to the drums if it's been leaking a while, brake line snapping when removing so needed to replace and replacing the brakes/bleeding etc..

Pics for reference:



The cause is likely the breather got clogged with gunk and the pressure build up popped the seals. From time to time to can "flick" it to make sure it's operating correctly. And it's pretty easy to replace all together..

 

This should be part of a sticky if it isn't already.

 

The bearings need to be pressed. The seal doesn’t. Depends on what needs to be replaced as to what the solution is. On 05+ the seal rides on a press on collar on the axle shaft. It doesn’t ride on the shaft itself. There is very often a sharp groove worn into that collar. So for replacing the seal, many times the collar needs to be replaced which involved either pulling the bearing off (the bearing will pull the collar), or very carefully cutting the collar off. If you just cut the collar off then you can press on a new one and then hammer in a new seal.

But the bearing needs to be verified as good too. If the seal has been leaking a while, there is a chance the bearing is contaminated by gear oil. These wheel bearings don’t like gear oil, it washes out the grease in the ball bearings. You also need to check for bearing wear in general. Poor bearing condition could cause the seal leak.

So unfortunately it’s not as simple as “you don’t need a press to change the seal”…while that specifically is true, there could and likely will be more needing to be done than simply swapping only the seal.

 

I don’t think this service is indicative of the brand name, rather the individual dealers. I had nearly the exact opposite happen,,, well Infinity (which is Nissan). They refused to address an obvious issue on a less than 2 yo low mileage CPO vehicle. My Toyota dealers have been just okay.
Semi related; my company vehicle (Ford) two dealers have been fantastic, the third was horrible, not to be bothered.