Oil/Fluid on driveshaft thingy.

[Matt T]

Hi guys, I'm new here In fact I'm new to Landcruisers but have just acquired an expedition equipped 2014 4.2 Diesel non turbo 1HZ 78 from South Africa, Currently doing my best to register it here in Bulgaria. I'm not mechanically minded and know very little about cars.
I have a very long question which I'll leave for later but here's a quickie if anybody can help. I drove the car off road for a couple of hours the other day and yesterday I noticed a drip of fluid under the car, It was hanging off the driveshaft, see photo. I wiped it off and it doesn't seem to have reappeared. In the pic you can see how oil/fluid has covered the front half of the unit the driveshaft joins into. My question, finally, is does this appear normal? Any answers will be much appreciated

 

[MODVRS]

Looks like the pinion oil seal is leaking. It's not normal and will need fixing.

 

[Matt T]

Looks like the pinion oil seal is leaking. It's not normal and will need fixing.

Bugger!

 

[MODVRS]

It's not a major job. An OEM (Toyota) seal is under £20 in the UK and readily available. I'm not an expert and haven't done the job myself (hope somebody else will coma along) but I think it involves undoing the four propshaft bolts, removing the big pinion nut and pulling the seal out. Replacement gets trickier as there is a crush tube under the pinion nut which has to be set up carefully; I've seen Youtube videos of people simply replacing the big nut to exactly the same position and I've also seen people using a new crush tube and carefully measuring backlash and turning torque etc to get it exactly right - have a look yourself and see if you think you can do it or need a mechanic.

 

[Matt T]

It's not a major job. An OEM (Toyota) seal is under £20 in the UK and readily available. I'm not an expert and haven't done the job myself (hope somebody else will coma along) but I think it involves undoing the four propshaft bolts, removing the big pinion nut and pulling the seal out. Replacement gets trickier as there is a crush tube under the pinion nut which has to be set up carefully; I've seen Youtube videos of people simply replacing the big nut to exactly the same position and I've also seen people using a new crush tube and carefully measuring backlash and turning torque etc to get it exactly right - have a look yourself and see if you think you can do it or need a mechanic.

Thanks for the advice