Recent content by Philip H Grant

I should mention that the leak has virtually sealed itself. The noise in first gear is a little buzz around 2800 RPM. In second gear it's about 3200 RPM. And I have no idea if it was there all along, or when the truck was new.

I just replaced the rear wheel left bearing because it was leaking grease onto the brake pads. (Big project as I had to cut the bearing retainer and the bearing off with a metal cutting blade on my drill. Then take it to a shop to have the new bearing pressed in.) I looked in the differential...

actually, the one thing Smart Toyota did right was I could see there was a bead of permatex gold all the way around— maybe they didn't have a gasket. But it didn't leak there! What you think: is is it worthwhile to, without disassembling it, just fill in the groove between the mating surfaces...

I will have to keep checking it. Thanks for the input.

Okay, but before I cleaned the oil off I had opened the fill hole to check the level so any pressure should of been released there if there was any. But I did see online that others are doing what you did just so that if you drive through a stream water wouldn't get sucked into the differential...

thanks for the tip but yesterday I cleaned off all the oil with paint thinner — the truck has just been sitting in the garage for the past six days — and this morning I can see fresh oil has seeped down from the gasket even though it hasn't been driven. So I'm not sure why your idea would help...

the repair has been completed. They wanted to sell me a new housing for only $2000 more. The mechanic took pictures of three spots he said it was still leaking. I told them I thought it was just excess oil left over from the the previous leak that Smart Toyota made by not installing the seal...

Toyota headquarters has approved the repair under warranty as well as giving me a loaner car. Hopefully this will be done better than in Iowa. Don't have a date yet.

I took it into Dorschel Toyota in Rochester New York yesterday. Before taking it in I discovered there was another leak where the drive shaft enters the housing — Smart Toyota seems to have left off the seal! I ended up telling Dorschel the whole story about the leaks. They are contacting Toyota...

On the way back from a four-wheel-drive exploration of Utah's wilderness — from and to New York — the differential blew in Davenport Iowa (3 AM Sunday morning in the rain). It was towed to Smart Toyota. They said that the entire differential had to be replaced, and had to wait four days for the...