Inner axle leak

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

I have a nasty leak coming from the front passenger side axle tube. I do believe it's coming from the inner axle seal. I just replaced the ball joints which involved taking the shafts out and I believe I might have damaged one. My question is, how cheap is it to replace the seals? Would a full master overhaul kit be the better choice? I believe everything is stock on the insides and after 109k miles would it be a good idea to replace them? I do also have a rear pinion seal leak:grayno:

Flatattack · Nov 15, 2013

The part will run you about $9. The problem is the fact that you have to tear the axle down to change it.

Flatattack · Nov 15, 2013

My driver side currently leaking. I'm going have Sleeves and C gussets installed since the axle has to torn down anyway. New Synergy ball joints will be going in to.

JKbrick · Nov 15, 2013

When we did my sleeves and gussets the seals got replaced but all he did was pulled out the carrier and put it back in. Only had around 9000 miles so not sure what a complete overhaul kit would do?

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

Yea I am just worried about hard it will be to keep everything the same way it came out. Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost for someone to do it?

JKbrick · Nov 15, 2013

Since I didn't know how to do axle stuff I paid a guy $300 to do my sleeves, gussets, and he welded on track bar reinforcement brackets on front and rear axles

4x4Jesus · Nov 15, 2013

I just had this done this week. I took it to get ball joints a couple weeks ago and the seal started leaking after that. The shop was going to replace the seals for free but they found that the old seals were rusted from water getting into the axle sleeve. They ended up just charging me for the parts and 1.5 hours labor. $180 they told me normal cost would be 3 hours labor.

wayoflife · Nov 15, 2013

Before you guys start throwing more money into your front axles, you should realize that a lot of times, inner axle seals will start leaking because your axle housing is bent! This happened to me and is really the only reason why I recently upgraded to a ProRock 44.

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

wayoflife said:
Before you guys start throwing more money into your front axles, you should realize that a lot of times, inner axle seals will start leaking because your axle housing is bent! This happened to me and is really the only reason why I recently upgraded to a ProRock 44.

Could this be a real possiblity only riding on 35" tires? I drive kinda hard on them and is there anyway to check if it is bent?

wayoflife · Nov 15, 2013

JK12 said:
Could this be a real possiblity only riding on 35" tires? I drive kinda hard on them and is there anyway to check if it is bent?

Well, I wouldn't have mentioned it if it weren't. Look at your wheels and see if they have camber to them - could be from your c's being bent or, could be from your axle tubes.

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

wayoflife said:
Well, I wouldn't have mentioned it if it weren't. Look at your wheels and see if they have camber to them - could be from your c's being bent or, could be from your axle tubes.

Now if this is the case and i upgrade to the Prorock 44 if i reuse the factory locker will i have issue later on if i want to install an ARB locker?

OverlanderJK · Nov 15, 2013

JK12 said:
Now if this is the case and i upgrade to the Prorock 44 if i reuse the factory locker will i have issue later on if i want to install an ARB locker?

Yes it's setup differently.

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

Well crap ha that means going ARB and making it all that more expensive. I just checked for camber and there is a little not anything serious but I just check the gear oil and it was about half of what is suppose to be. If it leaks this bad within a few days, could it be just a bad seal? Or truly a bent housing?

Tumbleweed · Nov 15, 2013

If the axle tube is a little bent, is that like being a little pregnant?

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

Tumbleweed said:
If the axle tube is a little bent, is that like being a little pregnant?

It could be....

David1tontj · Nov 15, 2013

JK12 said:
Well crap ha that means going ARB and making it all that more expensive. I just checked for camber and there is a little not anything serious but I just check the gear oil and it was about half of what is suppose to be. If it leaks this bad within a few days, could it be just a bad seal? Or truly a bent housing?

Well, the seal is indeed bad... But what they are saying is that if the axle is bent, it's gonna wear out your seals faster.. You could replace the seals and only get a couple thousand miles out of them before it starts leaking again.. Maybe better, maybe worse.. Who knows..

05 Tj, long arm, one ton, lockers, winches, 39.5" Iroks

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

David1tontj said:
Well, the seal is indeed bad... But what they are saying is that if the axle is bent, it's gonna wear out your seals faster.. You could replace the seals and only get a couple thousand miles out of them before it starts leaking again.. Maybe better, maybe worse.. Who knows..

05 Tj, long arm, one ton, lockers, winches, 39.5" Iroks

Thats the thing... if i replace the seal just to have them go bad again its just a couple hundred dollars gone to waste. But if they last, good. The leak is so bad that a trip across town, about 6 miles fluid is covering the inside of my wheel well and back side of the tire. Before the trip i filled it back up. Not to mention the smell of it is just nasty.:grayno:

David1tontj · Nov 15, 2013

JK12 said:
Thats the thing... if i replace the seal just to have them go bad again its just a couple hundred dollars gone to waste. But if they last, good. The leak is so bad that a trip across town, about 6 miles fluid is covering the inside of my wheel well and back side of the tire. Before the trip i filled it back up. Not to mention the smell of it is just nasty.:grayno:

Nothing like the smell of gear oil! If it was mine I would probably just throw another set of seals on it.. But if it starts leaking again soon, you know you'll have to do something major like what Eddie is recommending.. He's just saying, I think, that you should just put the repair money towards the new axle...

Edit: but it does sound like you need to do something fast.. You don't want that oil getting on your brakes and causing more problems

05 Tj, long arm, one ton, lockers, winches, 39.5" Iroks

JK12 · Nov 15, 2013

David1tontj said:
Nothing like the smell of gear oil! If it was mine I would probably just throw another set of seals on it.. But if it starts leaking again soon, you know you'll have to do something major like what Eddie is recommending.. He's just saying, I think, that you should just put the repair money towards the new axle...

Edit: but it does sound like you need to do something fast.. You don't want that oil getting on your brakes and causing more problems

05 Tj, long arm, one ton, lockers, winches, 39.5" Iroks

Yeah i was thinking that for repair money going into a new axle. but no for sure decision yet. i like the idea of a new axle but then again 6k for everything together is a big hit... Also if the problem were to continue after new seals its just kind of a waste but i dont know if thats the problem or if it will fix my issue

David1tontj · Nov 15, 2013

JK12 said:
Yeah i was thinking that for repair money going into a new axle. but no for sure decision yet. i like the idea of a new axle but then again 6k for everything together is a big hit... Also if the problem were to continue after new seals its just kind of a waste but i dont know if thats the problem or if it will fix my issue

That's why if it was me, I would "waste"the 300 bucks, mostly just to know for sure if the axle was bad

05 Tj, long arm, one ton, lockers, winches, 39.5" Iroks

Inner axle leak

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