Leaking Front Diff

[scottl]

Anyone have any theories on why diff fluid would be leaking from the breather tube vent? I just drove 2 hrs at 65, temps 5 to 20 F. When I pulled into the garage I smelled the fluid and found fluid dripping from between the front and center skid plate. I estimate there is 1/4 to 1/2 a cup, but will not know for sure until I pull the fill plug. There are no leaks from the drain or fill plugs, both axle seals are dry and there is no leak where the front drive shaft enters the diff. Both breather vents are not stuck or frozen in either the up or down position. My personal belief is the vent is defective and a new one will solve the problem, but I thought I would run it by everyone here for other opinions.

Thanks
Scott

[rambrush]

Most vents release pressure as you don't want to blow seals out. Have you driven in deep water? Was the differential overfilled? usually this happens with a overfilled unit. The Ring gear stirs the pot so to speak and creates foamy aireated fluid.
Is the fluid white and milky? this indicates water or a lot of condensation.

[scottl]

I have not changed the oil in a couple of years, no deep water in a couple of months and the oil is the same color it is from the container. It could be that the hose is split farther down, I have to change the oil Thursday so hopefully when I drop the skid plate and find something definate.

Scott

[Imdone]

hose???

You should change it a little more offten depending on useage, I don't think my front diff went 8 months without being changed. Either because I was working on something up front or I was just doing the service, more than likely modding something though...

Check it out this weekend and go from there, make sure your breather hose wasn't split and allowed a bunch of water to get in there, it will be a mess if it did and can rust out the gears and pinion and what not.

Post up when you figure it out.

[scottl]

I am still not sure why this happened. I changed the oil yesterday and it was darker than the new stuff, but nothing unusual, there was no water and the level was OK. I did end up doing a drain and refill to check for metal shavings in the oil or on the plug, but there weren't any. I checked the length of the hose and could not find anything. Even with a split in it there should be no reason for it to migrate all the way up the tube and out the end. With the ARB air line it is possible to get oil in the line, but usually that is a routing problem as well as its location is closer to the moving parts than the vent. Whatever it is I hope it breaks close to home and before the warranty is out.

Scott

[opto]

mine has been doing the same for over a year now, but only when the temps get low. I am going to clean out the hoses and vents and replace the fluid with Mobil 1 and hope the sythetic keeps a lower viscosity when it gets cold. I suspect that when the fluid gets thick the gears drive it out of the tubes. Let me know if anyone finds anything else.

[Spatten1]

Same problem here after changing the gear oil.

It is cold here, good to have that into.

I let the hole weep facing slightly downhill, so should not be overfilled.