Good Morning all-
I had a quick question regarding a minor rear diff leak. I changed out the diff fluid as part of routine maintenance and noticed rear diff has some minor leaking on the left hand (driverside i get confused at times) half axle. Before I do anything drastic, I wanted to get thoughts on attempting to clear the diff bleeder/air hose? I saw some threads on it, but most dealt with the front diff. The leaking is just enough to collect crud and discoloration on that side. Not noticeable on the ground.

Let me know your thoughts and experience!
Thank you,
James

06 LR3 156k
Replaced and fixed a lot :-)

 

A picture of the leak would be helpful. I am not sure if you have a leak at diff or on the drivers side hub.

 

I will try to get a good shot after work today!
Probably should have done that yesterday.
Thank you,
James

 

In my experience those leaks are caused by play in the bearing inside the diff. The axle rides on the seal and causes leaks.

you can change out the seal, if it’s the bearing the leak will re appear in a few weeks.

 

abran-
Thank you for the info. The repair would be with a bearing repair kit for the rear from Atlantic British or similar? I would not be able to do this myself, and have found if I order the parts, the repairs are much more financially reasonable.
Thanks!
I will post pics later this afternoon- cannot get my work clothes all dirty :-)

 

It would be a complete rear diff rebuild with new bearings and seals.

@unseenone has rebuild kits for sale.

 

All-
Per the suggestion-
here are the pics from the rear differential. The shots are taken from the passenger side.

left side diff w half shaft

close up Left side diff and half shaft

Rear Diff from Passenger side

 

I would, myself, not consider that a small leak. If I were you, I would clean that up really well. Simple green is good stuff. Then try to pin-point the leak in that mess. I cant tell if it was just the drain plug, your half-shaft seal or the diff body. A shot of the where the half-shaft enters may help though, near the boot sorta.

 

Gotcha-
I will give it a go this weekend. For what its worth, There is no detectible sound of grinding or anything.
But I will clean up and see if I can figure out where it is coming from.
Thanks,
James

 

Agreed, nothing small about that.