Final Drive Oil leak

[vitesse]

On my '06, after noticing a little oil spray on rear wheel (left side) getting worse, removed the rear wheel and found accumulation of gear oil leaked from the final drive housing and into wheel hub.

Then pulled the drive shaft out of the housing and noted a circlip holding what looks like an oil seal and a little residue gear oil in the housing where shaft goes in. Is there supposed to be gear oil here? No leakage past this seal onto shaft.

Searched and found topic June 20-21, 2007 on this subject. Post by RADMAN seems to say that this might be failure of seal at drive shaft but this doesn't explain oil found in hub.

Would appreciate any thoughts/remedy. I'm six months out of warranty so wondering if this could be a 'do it yourself' project.

 

[madmike2]

Bob, here's a LINK that can give you some information. Rad repaired his, SkooterG had his repaired. Rad is a qualified mechanic...I'm not. I'm sure that one of the posts I linked has Radman's thread in it where he explains and has a "blow-up" diagram.

IIRC, there are 2 or 3 seals, any one of which may be the culprit, so it will take disassembly ti determine which seal it is.

 

[radman]

Radfix

 

[SkooterG]

There are many seals/o-rings that can be the root cause of your problems. You can generally split them into one of two areas - from the driveshaft side, or the wheel side. From your description, I am having difficulty determining which one of the two areas your leak is coming from. You need to figure that out first.

Radman's leak was from the wheel side, mine and a few others from teh driveshaft side.

Here's a few links:

Good seals gone bad

Driveshaft/Gear Coupling/Final Drive 101

 

[vitesse]

Appreciate very much your thoughts and the links/photos. Extremely informative. Thank you very much.

Replacing the seal(s) is too high an intimidation level for me, so I'll be taking it to a dealership.

But out of curiosity, I still have a couple of questions which hopefully someone can answer.

(1) When I pulled the wheel off the final drive assembly, I noticed a little puddle of gear oil in the wheel hub and some in the ring gear assembly where wheel splines go in and believe this is where my problem lies, although I didn't think it was the seal around the ring gear that was leaking.

QUESTION: Assume I'm correct here?

(2) But when I pulled the driveshaft out of the pumpkin, I noticed that the splines on the shaft seemed to be washed with gear oil and there was residual gear oil inside where shaft/splines fit under pressure spring. There was no oil seepage forward past the oil seal on the shaft and I haven't experienced any oil on the floor from the weep hole.

QUESTION: Is the area of the shaft to the rear of the oil seal where it goes into the pumpkin supposed to be bathed in gear oil as part of the lubrication process? If not, do I have a problem here with a seal?

Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[SkooterG]

(2) But when I pulled the driveshaft out of the pumpkin, I noticed that the splines on the shaft seemed to be washed with gear oil and there was residual gear oil inside where shaft/splines fit under pressure spring. There was no oil seepage forward past the oil seal on the shaft and I haven't experienced any oil on the floor from the weep hole.QUESTION: Is the area of the shaft to the rear of the oil seal where it goes into the pumpkin supposed to be bathed in gear oil as part of the lubrication process? If not, do I have a problem here with a seal?

YES!

When I did the final drive/driveshaft 101 write-up that was the primary question to be answered. Read it again. There are two passages where oil is allowed to pass through from the final drive to the rear splines of the driveshaft to keep them lubricated.

Sounds like on your final drive, it's definately the wheel side. Once of several seals/o-rings could be the problem. Good luck.

 

[vitesse]

On second reading, I get it. Much obliged.