Am I leaking something?

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anthonycds

anthonycds

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
May 29, 2006
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Location
Oak Brook Mall
Just got underneath to pull out some grass stuck between cracks and noticed that by the front passenger A-arm and on top of it, there's this oily peanut butter color substance sorta splashed up onto stuff, mostly accumulated where the pic shows.

I don't recall anything like this in any of my components, if I'm assuming correctly. I'm hoping I just drove through this crap and it happened to splash up underneath and that I'm not leaking anything.

Help...
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Ok. How bad is it to drive if there indeed is a grease leak? Won't be able to get it looked at until tomorrow afternoon, and who knows after that if parts need to be ordered.
 
anthonycds said:
Anyone had a dealership fix this issue and how much parts are? I would do it myself but don't have the garage or area to do it.
Click to expand...

oh dealerships, lol, taken them 4 times to attempt to fix my boots and never get it right. I'm going to do what spress said, get new napa cvs with the soft rubber boots.
 
FWIW: The stock CV's were dry until I lifted the rig; within 7-8K they started puking. So I bought new Toyota OEM ($$$ :mad:) CV axle assemblies and within 30K or so they started puking at the small band clamp just like the originals.

I then rebuilt/rebooted my PS CV axle assembly this past spring but instead of using the POS Toyota OEM clamps I used aftermarket NAPA clamps: The kind that allow you to tighten them as much as you want. So far this job has held tight and I've driven this thing a BUNCH of tough off-road miles since!

Then the Toyota OEM (the second replacement CV axle) DS small band end started puking about 6-8 weeks ago. I decided, since the replacement Toyota PS CV assembly that I took off didn't feel "right" (clunky, rough with play) and wouldn't benefit from a reboot, to replace with the new NAPA CV assembly (Note: NAPA also sells reman CV axle assemblies for our LC's) with their Lifetime Warranty.

Time and mileage will tell. If one or both of my fixes doesn't remedy this leaking issue I think I'll send the rig to Christo for a SAS conversion :rolleyes:.
 
I evidently slashed my new NAPA cv (outer boot) last weekend. Now I get to see how their warranty works :rolleyes:.

Christo's SAS conversion is looking better all the time...
 
anthonycds said:
Just got underneath to pull out some grass stuck between cracks and noticed that by the front passenger A-arm and on top of it, there's this oily peanut butter color substance sorta splashed up onto stuff, mostly accumulated where the pic shows.

I don't recall anything like this in any of my components, if I'm assuming correctly. I'm hoping I just drove through this **** and it happened to splash up underneath and that I'm not leaking anything.

Help...
Click to expand...

OK, so I re-banded mine this weekend. After removing the small band, I slid it toward the big end to clean the shaft surface and a bunch-o-stuff the same color as the OP pics came out. I was expecting something more solid/black in there! No tears on the boots. Is the grease just broken down? If so, is there a preferred procedure to clean? I'd rather not pull the CV if I don't have to.
 
The CV "grease" is less viscous than typical grease (i.e. chassis and wheel bearing grease). Its really lube. And its viscosity is somewhat runny. I'm not sure how one would get CV lube back in the boot without having the CV shaft assembly on the bench.

If you didn't lose that much I'd not worry about it. There's an argument out there in racing circles to, on raised IFS where the boot is running at a more acute angle and supposedly with less internal space, run less lube than stock height IFS...
 
That makes me feel a little better. I probably lost about 2 tbsp, plus whatever had leaked out prior to the band repair.

IIRC, isn't there another thread somewhere regarding putting the grease back in with a needle on a gun?

I guess in my OCD mind I had envisioned needing to clean it out and re-grease the thing. My primary concern was that it was water causing the low viscosity and color. But if this is normal and a little loss rate isn't a big deal...

Oh, BTW, reclocked the steering right before dinner using the splines at the rack. Took all of about 7 minutes.
 
OregonLC said:
That makes me feel a little better. I probably lost about 2 tbsp, plus whatever had leaked out prior to the band repair.

IIRC, isn't there another thread somewhere regarding putting the grease back in with a needle on a gun?

I guess in my OCD mind I had envisioned needing to clean it out and re-grease the thing. My primary concern was that it was water causing the low viscosity and color. But if this is normal and a little loss rate isn't a big deal...

Oh, BTW, reclocked the steering right before dinner using the splines at the rack. Took all of about 7 minutes.
Click to expand...

Were you able to shove the steering shaft up into the coupler to get it off of the splines at the rack end?

FYI: The OEM CV lube is cream colored as the OP's photos. Per the FSM: The grease capacity for the inboard tulip/boot is 293-303 grams (10.3-10.7 ounces); the grease capacity for the outer tulip/boot is 368-378 grams (13.0-13.3 ounces).
 
I did the old hose clamp trick on my 100 a couple if weekends ago. I used CV grease from Napa, and SS thin hose clamps from West marine. I also bought 2 small syringes from West Marine and injected about 8 OZ of grease in each side. Seemed to work great... Although I have not checked them for leaking.
 
Is there a particular size clamp I should get at NAPA? I'd like to replace the small clamps that are loose on several wheels, and I'd like to pull the big clamp apart to squirt some moly grease in there. Same with my 4Runner. I've run zip-ties with no problems on my beaters, seems like I should go with clamps here.
 
I think the clamps I got were 1 3/4" or around there. The nice thing about getting them from West Marine, is that you can buy the thin ones. They are 1/4" wide and fit in between the grooves on the boot. With the old clamp off, I pushed the syringe between the boot and the shaft and injected the grease. I think i remember inserting it on the top side of the shaft so the old grease would not leak out. I never touched the larger of the clamps, I think the problematic ones are the outer most small ones....
 
The problems with injecting grease into the boots:
1) They use a measured amount. (how much came out)
2) They use a specific lube (grease). (compatibility issues)

It's really not that big a job, just pick-up OEM boot kit(s), they come with measured packs of grease which looks just like the grease in the picture of #1 post in this threads'
 
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