Hello everybody.

New to the forum, was wondering if anybody has had this problem. I have scoured the old interwebs trying to figure out what’s going with my rear differential. I just purchased a 2011 two wheel drive 2.3. I drove almost a hundred miles home and two days back and forth to work and the third day I noticed fluid under the truck long story short it was coming out vent hose, pulled hose and valve and cleaned both. From what I found out that was causing this might be water in the differential. So I drained and refilled with new recommended fluid that was in manual. I filled it till it came out fill hole. Now here’s the weird part, when I drive to work (20min highway) there’s nothing coming out of vent tube, when I get home, 8 hours later it’s leaking out vent tube, there’s about a softball size of fluid on ground after sitting for 10-15 minutes. I don’t know if there’s something going on inside the differential, don’t hear no noises when driving. Please help if you have ever heard of this happening.

Thanks.

 

Is the rearend geting hot? Once the axel has stopped running the heat could sort of build up possibly vaporizing and presureing the inside of the axel. After you run the truck for a ways feel the carrier at the locations of all bearings and also at the wheel bearings. Are the brakes dragging? Just brain storming here.

 

the only thing I have felt is the diff cover and it’s not hot to the touch, Luke warm is about it. I’ll will check this evening when I get home. The brakes feel fine, I haven’t pulled the rear wheels off but I could take a look at them too.
I thought I might have overfilled it but this is going on the second week of doing this. Last weekend I checked the level of fluid with a makeshift “L” shape piece of plastic and it was about 3/16 below fill plug.
thanks for the response!!

 

Well I just checked around the whole axle and the only thing that was hot was towards the front of the differential on the bottom and it wasn’t hot enough to where I couldn’t keep my hand on it.

If I did have water in it, which I’m not really for sure if it did cause I never seen any water in there when I changed the fluid, could it be possible that there is still water in it from the old oil. I didn’t actually wipe the whole inside out, I just let drain until it stopped draining and sealed it back up and put fluid in it.
thanks

 

The end of the vent hose should be attached to the under side of the bed, so 6+ inches above the axle
The vent hose is also on the top of an axle tube and above the height of the fill hole, so it shouldn't ever have oil in it, just air

So there should be no oil coming out of it, even if axle over heats, there should be no oil in the vent hose to be pushed out

One possibility
If you park on a side angle so oil fills the axle tube on the side of vent hose then as the oil stops circulating(parked) it will heat up a bit more and expand, like all fluids do, and could be pushed up the vent hose, but long shot on that one

 

You can’t see it in the photo but the hose is attached to the bed rail, it has a little plastic piece on the end with prongs sticking out to keep it in place.

 

See if you can move it so there is no DIP in the hose for oil to collect
It needs to DRAIN any oil back into the tube

Hard to tell but it looks like you have a "trap"(low spot) in the hose where oil could collect and block air flow in and out, so it has to push the oil out first to get the air out

 

That makes a lot of sense, never thought about that. Will try it this evening.
thank you!!

 

So I read your post earlier and I got to thinking about the parking. Well where I park at work I am on a grade, the driver side (same side as the vent hose) is leaning downward pretty good. I guess after all these years of parking in the same spot you get use to the vehicle leaning. And that makes sense since when I’m home I park level in the garage and when I go to work it don’t leak but after sitting all day leaning on the drivers side then drive home and it leaks when I get in the garage. Who would of thought that. I’ll be parking on a level spot next week and see what happens then.
thank you very much for the suggestion.

 

Good call

But without the DIP in the line the oil should be able to drain back down on the drive home, it just hasn't been able to in the past, so I would address that as well

 

Sorry I forgot to mention that, but I plan on doing that too.
thanks!!

 

 

So after parking last night in the garage and getting the vent hose completely vertical and cleaning all up all of the oil around the vent hose I drove about 40 miles this morning and stopping 4 times, I got home and checked for any leaks...knock on wood and it is bone dry.
just want to say thanks to you guys for the help. It’s really appreciated!!

 

Good work

 

As the axel heats up the oil expands and there is partial pressure. if you did not have one you would tend to push oil out the seals. The other factor is that it also expels moisture. Sounds like you have it. A cheap fix. Those are the best ones!

 

I've got a leaking pinion seal, and I'm trying to pull the diff vent hose to see if it is backed up for any reason. My hose looks like OPs with the dip, so I'll definitely try securing it vertically to see if that changes anything.

However, does anyone know how to pull the hose off from either end to troubleshoot? I was under the truck this morning and the hose was secured to the differential under some housing that I couldn't get off. The hose end with the valve is routed to the interior of a bed support C-channel that seems inaccessible. Any suggestions?