Pressurised diff?

[mrfish]

I came back from a particulary difficult journey last night (8 hours of river crossings, rock trails and dried mud tracks) to find the rea of the vehicle spattered in oil. Had a look underneath and found the whole of the rear to be covered in oil, and i do mean covered. The diff housing was covered top to bottom as well as the A frame, shocks and springs etc.

I have been scratching my head over the cause. If the front seal of the diff had failed i would expect potentialy a significant leak but not for it to be sprayed everywhere. I then noticed that the breather to the rear axle had touched onto the exhaust and melted a bit and effectively sealed itself. Would this cause the diff to overpresurise and blow out oil? or worse still crack the top of the diff housing?

I will try and take some photos tomorrow morning showing the extent of the oil coverage.

[western]

Would this cause the diff to overpresurise and blow out oil?

Yes,because the axle can't breathe, the excess pressure will find the next easy way out -- the pinion seal in your case.

[landy andy.]

As above, diff not able to breath, so blows out oil

Andy

[sammyb]

x3, clean axle breathers up, had same issue from the gearbox

[jbs]

I know when my axle breather on my rear axle is blocked as I end up having to not only clean out the breather, pipework with an air compressor and small screw driver and use a fair bit of brake and clutch cleaner on the underside and the hub etc but also change the hub oil seal and most of the time the rear brake pads too-Obviously this means I've been busy sorting other things and missed the basic's-Doh!

John