Axle Seal Issues

[ern-diz]

Originally Posted by 06YarisRS

A question for you, Ernie..have you changed your gear box oil? It's one of the things on my maintenance list.

Don't remind me LOL! In the very beginning, when I was pretty sure the axle seal wasn't leaking, I did a flush with $40 worth of Royal Purple gear oil (bad idea). When that started spilling out and I knew I had a bad seal, we changed the seal and I dropped another $40 worth of Royal Purp in it. Then the axle ate that new seal, which is what led to changing the seal the second time, along with the axle itself. This time around, I dropped some cheapo, $6 Valvoline gear oil in it just to make sure all is well. Wasn't about to drop another $40+ of Royal Purple in it just to have it puke out on me for a third time. Now that I'm multiple drives in with no leak, my plan is to dump the Valvoline and once again throw some good stuff in it. Maybe Amsoil, or Royal Purple again.

Prior to the axle seal issues, I hadn't considered changing it. You'll find threads and posts across the forum where people have differing opinions about whether or not it's necessary. The job is easy enough, though. One bolt to drain, one bolt to fill. The most challenging part, which wasn't all that challenging at all, was Frankenstein'ing two funnels into one so it was long enough to reach the fill hole from the top of the engine. I bought the longest regular funnel Pep Boys had, along with one of those funnels that has a bendable tube and close valve on it. I pulled the tube off the second funnel and attached to the longer funnel. That gave me the length I needed to fill from above. We didn't want to mess around with a pump as that can get messy (as if things on my garage floor haven't been messy enough!).