I just washed my truck and noticed a bunch of fresh oil on the inside of my driver side wheel. I was out and ran it by my buddy mechanic and it is indeed the rear axel seal that is bad.

Just curious if anyone has replaced this themself, or brought it to the dealer. The dealer said about $350 total for the repair.

 

I just got mine done under the 60K powertrain warranty and if that hadn't covered it I have an extended warranty that would have. Any warranty left?

IIRC they replace the seal with an improved design to fix the problem of the bad original seal.

 

I have the extended platinum Toyota warranty, but mine is a '97 and 7 years ended last year.

 

I fixed mine myself in under an hour. Very simple procedure. The seal costs $10 from the dealer.

 

I'm telling you Jason, cut off the chrome pipes, and just wheel it ...

 

Was your the outer or inner seal?

 

For those that have done it, which instructions do you think are the most accurate for my 3rd gen?

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/mainte...wheel_bearing/

https://www.yotatech.com/~corey/tech...m1_oilseal.htm

http://128.83.80.200/taco/rwb.html

 

I've never done an axle seal, however, the miidle one seems to be the best write up. The bottom one is ok as well. If I had to do it, I would probably follow those two because they make it seem easy. Looking at the write-ups it doesn't sound like a $350 job. No wonder stealerships make so much money. If it is a 2 hour job (which it should take those mechanics about 1/2 an hour), with $20 worth of parts, the most it should cost is $180 (assuming $80/hr which is the rate in NY).

 

Hey Jason,

I just finished with that whole mess of axle seals too. It is usually the inner seal that is leaking. The lucky part is that is the easy one to replace. Just make sure that your bearings arent shot. I changed seals 3 times trying different ones and it never solved the problem. Then finnally I got the bearings replaced and no more leaking. My bearings were really loose but i have 130k on my runner so the milage definately was a factor. The outer seal is actually sandwiched with the bearings between some rings and needs to be presssed off so just try the inner ones for now.

 

Ahh, ok. I was just going to ask about that press tool. So that only needs to be used for the OUTER seals.

What's the best way to tell if the bearing is bad?

Last question, is there a way to know what seal is leaking (inner/outer) before I rip it apart?

 

Jason, one advantage to having it done by a mechanic is that the work is guaranteed. Since these seals are known to fail (maybe less with a new design as mentioned by Waskilly?) you might have the same problem again soon. My '96 made it to 130k before the seals went, I had them replaced when I re-geared and locked the rear end. They went out again less than a year later! I replaced them again and they have been fine (cross my fingers) for about another year now. No matter what, do it fast to avoid ruining the rear brakes shoes and possibly wheel bearings.

 

Thanks. I'm might be leaning that way...

As I mentioned before, I think this just started leaking a few days ago. I haven't driven it since then, so I'm assuming if it's not being driven it won't be leaking as much. I hope to have this fixed soon. The last time I had it out, the brakes seem great, so I think the rears are still good.

 

I'd do it myself honestly........I have been to school for all of this sure, but I've done it before that. I did the ones on my 4Runner just a few weeks ago and a monkey can do it. The only remotely hard part is getting them in straight. Best thing for that is a big socket and a dead blow hammer.

If you do it yourself you'll see what I mean and would have kicked yourself in the ass for paying a mechanic to do it. We're talking about taking the tires off, a few bolts out, pulling the half shaft, popping a seal out, putting the new one in and reassembly.

 

If your axle is leaking, then the inner seal has definitely failed.
Oil has leaked past it, through the sealed bearing (possibly washed the grease out of the bearing), and out past the outer seal (which is only designed to keep water, etc. out of the bearing, not keep oil in).

A lot of times the inner seal fails because the bearing has worn and developed some play, so if you've got high miles, you may be better off replacing the bearings and all the seals at the same time. The wheel bearings usually last well over 100K though on a street driven rig.

Also, if your seal has worn a groove into the sealing surface (the bearing retaining ring) then your new seal will not work well for long. The ring will need to be replaced, and that would be a good time to replace the bearing since it has to come off anyway. The outer seal while you're that far into then too.

 

Well, before the holiday I got my truck up on jack stands and replaced the rear driver side inner seal ($4) and O ring ($3) Toyota parts. The bearing and outer seals seemed to be ok.

My rear brake did have some oil on them and I cleaned everything up real good with brake cleaner and simple green spray. That simple green in the aresol can works great! My brake shoes now look new, and I'm going to see how they hold up. Ebrake works just as good as it always has and I didn't feel I needed to replace the rear shoes.

While doing all this, I drained the rear diff and put in new Valvoline 80w90 gear oil. $3.63 a quart.

http://www.valvoline.com/pages/produ...w.asp?PN=VV831

Total cost of fix? $15.

I went on a 400 mile trip this weekend over labor day and it rode great and no leaks.

If anything changes, I'll update in this thread.

 

I saw that you were a little hesitant about changing them. After doing it, what can you say about the procedure. I am asking because I am going to be swapping 3rd members and would like to do it myself but the most daunting part of it is pulling the axle shafts. So I an intrested to hear what you have to say about the task of doing it.

thanks,
Nolan

 

jason,

no pics? no writeup!?!?

bob

 

How many writeups do you need?

 

Here is the inner seal removed.


How pretty.

On jackstands:



This was the best write-up I found, but I read them all. This is specifically for models with ABS, which makes a little difference, well, it's just a little trickier to get the inner seal out on models with abs.

https://www.yotatech.com/~corey/tech...m1_oilseal.htm

It wasn't bad at all. I took my time and had a friend help me pull the axel out. I wanted to make sure I kept it real steady when pulling it out.

All the time as spent on cleaning up all the oil soaked stuff, wheel, drums, etc.

Some other tips that worked great.

Make a note of these:

1) "I did find out if you put the new axle seal in the freezer for about 10 minutes, it shrinks just enough to easly slide back in the place of the old one. The seals are very hard to fit back in if you dont do this and they have to go in perfect or you might damage it."
by Jataga

2) "You'll need to bleed the wheel cylinder on that side. That's probably my least favorite part of the job.

You can try gravity bleeding it by just leaving the bleeder screw open and draining into a cup while keeping an eye on the master cyl. to make sure it doesn't run dry. It doesn't drain very fast, but keep an eye on it.
Gravity bleeding usually works, but if not you can have your friend step on the brake pedal an hold it, while you crack open the bleeder to let the pressure out, then close the bleeder, and have your friend let back off the brake. A few cycles of that after gravity bleeding should do the trick.

Don't let the master cylinder run dry and don't let your buddy let off the brake while you have the bleeder open. Either one will introduce more air into the system instead of get it out.
If you're going to be working on your (or a buddies) truck and bleeding/flushing brakes, buy a motive products power bleeder. Its worth it."
by Erik

3) Buy some rubber vacuum caps from Advance auto to plug your brake line after you disconnect it.
7/32in. part # 47392, about $2.



I just had a a friend bleed it at the back when I stepped on the brake pedal. This whole process for the bleeding took 1 min exact, very easy with two people.

 

when you take off the brake line is there something you use to plug it?