Leaking oil from front axle at wheel hub

[tb45owner]

Hi Guys,

I have a tb45e patrol and have found the front axle balls leaking oil. any advice on how to replace the seals??

Thanks
Adrian

[MudRunnerTD]

How long have you owned the car? How long has it been leaking for? How often do you out it in 4wd?

It is likely the inner axle seal and it has likely washed out your wheel bearing with Diff oil which is what is leaking out.

If you have not done maintenance on the front end in a long time then I highly recommend putting a Swivel Hub Rebuild kit and a set of wheel bearings. All are available on eBay and there are a number of threads on ow to do it on this forum.

[growler2058]

With Mudrunner here your axle seals are fubar take care putting the axles back in as the seal is easily damaged

[tb45owner]

Thanks for reply...
had the car since 2001, not sure how long its been leaking I was looking at an oil leak around the oil pressure switch and cleaned off oil deposits everywhere and noticed it leaking.
I dont 4wd as such, just across paddocks for firewood etc.
The oil is dripping out around the edge of the ball and i can see what looks like a black rubber seal.

[the evil twin]

You won't be able to see the axle seal which is what is supposed to keep the oil in the diff and is leaking. That seal is an internal one.

The seal you can see is probably (guessing here) the seal on the swivel hub that is an external seal designed to keep the dirt and grunge etc out.

Like the guys before me said... best to do the whole hub and axle seals, check and regrease the bearing etc all in one hit

It is usually the pax side that goes, maybe 80/20, because that is the PIA side with the long axle and is easiest to damage the seal when installing etc

[NP99]

Yep, put aside a whole day and about $300 if you are doing it yourself...