Hi. I've just bought a 96 landcruiser with 114k. I bought it without much inspection (so stupid..so so stupid) besides a quick once over because I know the PO. The brakes felt very soft and I thought it was a bleed job and that was it and at most pads and rotors. Well I bled them and they improved dramatically, but still would occasionally bottom out. I thought it must be the master cylinders shaft not sealing well all the time and took it to Toyota for diagnosis. They come back and tell me that the PO had some inferior brake work done, shims were missing and things weren't tightend correctly which has caused some problems. The left side was leaking some grease/oil and because it wasn't tightened correctly they said it had worn out where the axle went into the transmission. Now I test drove the vehicle at highway speeds and it was tight and straight, engaged the tranny in low, offroad and tested all that. No noise, no popping. Toyota of course tells me it is not safe to drive at all because it could damage the transmission and it isn't safe. oh... they also gave me an estimate of $2887.00 to fix the leak and do brakes all the way around. They quoted 12 hours labor at $98/hr for the front end (came to $1440) alone. I quickly got online and found this forum and many good threads on the same problem and now know that small amount of grease is grease and diff fluid and why I bought the truck for $7500 as an extra vehicle (thought it was a good deal..lol) and don't need to drive it so I've got the time to do the work myself. My only concern is the statement they made that "where the axle goes into the transmission was worn out". Any ideas as to what they are referring to? I bought the haynes manual and after looking here seem to need the fsm and I've pm'ed elmariachi for the dvd. I don't want to get it apart and messy only to find a problem I can't fix. Is it just the seal or bearings they are talking about? Could there possibly be any machining involved in their fix or are they just replacing the seals like everyone else on here only slower? Is it a bad idea not to change the bearings if they look good, will that speed up the job dramatically or should I just do them as well? Thanks for letting me ramble on my first post!