Tom n N
Advanced Member
Well, it appears ski3pin is not the only one to recently dodge a bullet.
Yesterday I was installing my offroad tires in preparation for a trip to Utah next week. The first sign of trouble was some oil spots on my garage floor. Even though it has over 350K hard miles on it, in typical Toyota fashion, my truck does not leak a drop. On closer inspection my rear diff housing had been drenched in some kind of fluid. Looked like a badly leaking brake line or one of my brand new rear shocks had already blown out. This was definitely new because after our April Death Valley/Mojave trip I not only swapped out the tires, but also replaced both rear shocks, as one had self destructed on the trip. I definitely would have noticed the oil leak at that time. Since then, other than a quick road trip up to the Bay Area, and an afternoon drive on a local mild trail, the truck hasn’t left the garage.
Further inspection revealed it to be gear oil, not a good sign! All the usual leak points were dry as a bone. My local gear guru said it appears the housing is cracked at the spring pad weld. Says he’s seen it happen a few times, but never on a Toyota. Sure glad I found it at home, not sure what a couple weeks of bouncing around the Utah back country would have done to it. Gear guy shares shop space with a good welder, so between the two of them hopefully it can get fixed before our planned departure date.
Always kind of expected my overloaded trips on bad roads would eventually bite me (literally) in the rear, but never would have guessed this.
Anyone ever heard of anything like this? How about good long term preventative fixes (other than staying on better roads or carrying less beer, which ain't going to happen!)
Tom
Yesterday I was installing my offroad tires in preparation for a trip to Utah next week. The first sign of trouble was some oil spots on my garage floor. Even though it has over 350K hard miles on it, in typical Toyota fashion, my truck does not leak a drop. On closer inspection my rear diff housing had been drenched in some kind of fluid. Looked like a badly leaking brake line or one of my brand new rear shocks had already blown out. This was definitely new because after our April Death Valley/Mojave trip I not only swapped out the tires, but also replaced both rear shocks, as one had self destructed on the trip. I definitely would have noticed the oil leak at that time. Since then, other than a quick road trip up to the Bay Area, and an afternoon drive on a local mild trail, the truck hasn’t left the garage.
Further inspection revealed it to be gear oil, not a good sign! All the usual leak points were dry as a bone. My local gear guru said it appears the housing is cracked at the spring pad weld. Says he’s seen it happen a few times, but never on a Toyota. Sure glad I found it at home, not sure what a couple weeks of bouncing around the Utah back country would have done to it. Gear guy shares shop space with a good welder, so between the two of them hopefully it can get fixed before our planned departure date.
Always kind of expected my overloaded trips on bad roads would eventually bite me (literally) in the rear, but never would have guessed this.
Anyone ever heard of anything like this? How about good long term preventative fixes (other than staying on better roads or carrying less beer, which ain't going to happen!)
Tom