Rear diff leak from fill plug & pinion seal

OP- how many miles on your taco?

 

180k

Just a fluid drain refill

Nothing came gushing out, heres the pics, how do you know if the washer is backwards or not?

 

OP-
when was the last diff fluid change prior to this one?
why did you change the fluid, reg main? or something else?
are you now or ever have experieced any strange sounds coming from the diff?

have you thoughly cleaned the areas with gear oil residue with brake parts cleaner,
then test drove to see that there is in fact a leak?
it could be oil spill over from the fluid service you just had performed

 

Just get a new crush washer. It was leaking.

I guess it wasn't overfilled.

SOMETHING made it splash out the overflow.....I don't know what.

Does the oil stink to high heaven? It should if correct......unless you specified synthetic or the mechanic replaced with that.

The fluid was low before though so we'll have to figure out now why.

 

the drain washer is a crush tyoe
needs to be replaced with new every time you drain it/remove it
the upper fill washer is re usable

 

there is no direction on those washers...either way works

 

About 25k ago, when I bought the truck. So I tightened the fill plug and that's not leaking anymore. Yea the oil stinks. Toyota said to do it and wanted 700 to do my front struts so went with a cheaper guy and had him do all this other stuff to it while it was there. Definitely can hear a howl around 40/45 cant tell from the front or back tho.

Still some splash of liquid from the other side of the differential. Pretty much straight line consistent to where the pinion seal is / I guess.


Any quick fixes like sealant or sit on it til the dealer looks at it thursday ? Might try finding a reputable shop to look sooner.

Learning alot today guys

 

being the 2nd owner as you stated explains a lot now
in the future (for troubleshooting assitance) always list those things in the initial post

over the past 4 months I have become a self taught master of the gen2 taco rear end
check out this thread-
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-end-howl-whine-at-60mph-no-more-howl-issue-solved.597315/

after numerous tear downs & rebuilds of my rear end, I know this side of the taco pretty well

a leaking pinion seal is the end result of some other failure
something caused that seal to leak,
& a fluid swap, or even overfill will not cause that (btw, you really cant overfill it, maybe a little but not much)

you have a damaged diff my friend, likely need service or replacement
to replace that seal you need to tear apart the whole rear end--->
rear brakes, driveshaft drop, carrier assembly removal/axle spline removal....sort of a PITA, but doable

if you are hearing strange noise from the truck at high way speed....thats tell tale diff failure sign
dealer is $1600
ECGS IS $700-800 with core
you can likely get it rebuilt locally to you for $400-600

this is a common issue on our trucks
so dont worry too much
we are here to help

this may help you isolate the source of the problem & at this point your leak-
https://www.knowyourparts.com/technical-resources/drive-train/diagnosing-differential-noise/
the noise you are hearing is the key to the root of the problem
try & figure when the noise occurs...accel, decel, all the time, slow speed, high speed, etc

 

Sorry, no.
Since your saying the splash is above pinion and not overflow and fluid was low before, I imagine this DOES mean pinion seal.

 

Vent plugged, diff overfilled, or both.

 

I think if the pinion seal was bad you would see oil in a complete radius around the pinion. In other words everything in line with the pinion would have oil on it. You would probably also see it dripping from the bottom when parked. There would be an oil spot where you park.

 

check you pinion bearing for play
grab the driveshaft & move it up/down/left/right where it meets the diff flange plate

a worn pinion bearing/race howls & if not addressed, can & will damage the pinion oil seal eventually

 

the sad things is even if nothing internally is wrong with the diff, you still have to remove a butt load of hardware to replace that seal
sorry OP

 

Sorry I might have misunderstood, did you say you had your differential changed by a shop? As in they put a whole used rear end in?

 

I'm confused too. Was there two separate visits to the same shop? Once for the rebuild and once for the drain and fill?

 

OP- is it possible this is why the truck was sold?
(if you do in fact have a howl, the previous owner may have driven it with that howl for some time & instead of fixing it, sold it.....
you drove it for 25k miles on top of that with same that issue & that eventually caused the leak?)

 

OP- you really need to clarify on your original post (as others have pointed out) for better assistance on this
did you have the carrier assembly replaced or just a fluid swap or both?

I believed the point of confusion in your original post is-
'Got my diff changed by some shop up the street'
did you forget to type in fluid before diff?
or did you in fact have the whole diff swapped out???

 

Right on


A garage changed the differential fluid. Not the whole differential. Sorry. Toyota dealer recommended.


Was told he just drained and refilled. But it wasn't leaking everywhere before I took it to him. Yesterday I took the fill plug & vent valve off and cleaned them best I could, valve wasn't full of crud or nothing... put them back on. No leak from fill plug now. Took a spin 5 blocks away and here is the result. No real drips or lingering residue anymore but you can see a few spots on the ground + where it is still splashing up against the underbody.


After 40mph closer to 45mph there definitely is a hum of some sort. Not really driving this around until it's fixed.

 

Could be who knows. It was prevelant when I bought it but got several things done when I got it home from Michigan last year ( new rotors, front brakes, both differentials and transfer case fluids changed & new tires ) ... and ran real well all year until needed lower ball joints, driver side front wheel bearing & shocks + new rear brake pads.


After the winter season I knew I had to get the front shocks / struts done still so... that led me to trying to get this work done. It wasn't even making this super pronounced howling noise before I dealt with this guy.

I have a moving & landscaping company; got a bank loan to get my 1st truck, the toyota here in Madison sold one I wanted from under me & I was trying to get my business going so I flew to the closest one I could find & drove it home. I knew there were going to be things I needed to fix on it. So I'm not really tripping about that.


There a super solid shop in spring lake, MI close to where I bought it from & thinking of when I have a couple grand to take a ferry there and have them do everything I need / want like a real suspension & whatever else they rec. Cause these places in Madison are trash. & as a new business owner I ain't rich.

You guys are cool for talking with me. It's my fault for going cheap but it's what I can do. Still love tf out of my truck.

 

Seems difficult To overfill that as well. Fluid will only rise to the level of the fill hole ...