Fluid leak at rear diff?

[Angelo]

I just changed the gasket and oil about 15k miles ago. I don't know when this started leaking but I just discovered that my rear diff is covered in fluid on the front and at the bottom of it. I guess the gasket is probably what's leaking at the bottom of the diff cover, but what about all that fluid on the front side where the drive shaft connects to it? What could that be from?
I just took off the breather tube and blew out the tube. It wasn't falling apart and just a little gunk came out the top of the breather.
I also just checked the fluid level and it took a little less than half quart to fill so not too bad for having a seeping leak.
[Ignore the water on the ground it is just water]

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[GoToGuy]

You could power wash it real well. So you could see where the fluid is actually coming from. It's dirty , old , hard to tell exactly what's going on. Cleaning the residue off , checks if your diff cover has developed a leak, or ( most likely it looks) that the front pinion seal has started to leak. Fluid spun out , blown back by air currents. Gravity pulls everything down .
Leaks don't get blown forward, against relative winds, normally.

 

[Schurkey]

Perhaps a moderator could move this thread out of TRANSMISSIONS and into Axles + Brakes.

10.5" ring gear, full-float.

Obvious pinion seal seepage, but doesn't look fresh like the stuff farther back. There's also a pinion-carrier gasket, but I don't have the feeling that it's seeping.

As said...powerwash, see what comes back. Keep the fluid full--don't let the leak get away from you.

Did you refill with synthetic fluid? Did you use RTV Silicone to seal the cover?

 

[RichLo]

Agree'd with all above, there's a difference between seepage and leakage. Like Schurkey said, the pinion seal is seeping (not a huge problem for now) but the diff cover gasket is leaking which needs to be fixed as soon as you have time, brake clean, RTV and fresh fluid.

Just keep an eye on the pinion seal until you can bring it in to re-seal it. If you start seeing a wet look, its getting worse and leaking.

Good strong axle, keep it healthy.

 

[Road Trip]

I just changed the gasket and oil about 15k miles ago. I don't know when this started leaking but I just discovered that my rear diff is covered in fluid on the front and at the bottom of it. I guess the gasket is probably what's leaking at the bottom of the diff cover, but what about all that fluid on the front side where the drive shaft connects to it? What could that be from?
I just took off the breather tube and blew out the tube. It wasn't falling apart and just a little gunk came out the top of the breather.
I also just checked the fluid level and it took a little less than half quart to fill so not too bad for having a seeping leak.
[Ignore the water on the ground it is just water]

You must be registered for see images attach

Hi Angelo,

In your first photo it looks like the driver's side axle tube is also wet?

(EDIT: In the 2nd photo that is the very picture of a pinion seal leak. (!)

Since the first photo looks like there is a second leak from something forward of the rear axle
adding to the leak pattern from the pinion seal weep in the 2nd photo, is it possible that what
we are looking at came from the underhood leak that you were working on in this thread? (master cylinder/hydroboost leak)

As others have already suggested, give the underneath of your truck a good powerwashing
(or quarter carwash session) ...and then after a few miles, retry these photos? And in order to
get a better photo, try taking your photos in the twilight of the evening, this way your camera's
flash can provide the light instead of the glare of the day washing out what we're trying to get
a good look at.

Just trying to be helpful. I've been fooled by leaks before -- like GoToGuy mentioned, the
underbody air currents are hard to predict & must be taken into account...