Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado & Prado 90/95 Rear Axle Wheel Bearing and Oil seals
Sorry for the title, but even though I've now removed the N/S rear half shaft on Fiery to start my investigations as to where the oil is coming from and why! I still have not managed to find any detail as to how one goes about removing the bearing from the housing and the ABS rotor. Apart from people talking of hours of sweat and toil with grinders, chisels and big hammers and the occasional mention of an illusive SST!! So I hope that my title will bring others with more info and hopefully photos a plenty via Google to expand this thread into the future.
It starts like this for me, 07/08/2010 buy Fiery
Then a couple of months later post this thread Please have a look @ these pics of Fierys rear hub & advise
The crux of it was that my N/S rear brake drum was full of black greasy gunk and looked like this;
The up shot of what I did was empty a couple of cans of brake cleaner into and around the effected area until all trace of dirt and grease had been removed and popped it all back together, leaving the original brake shoes in situ as they cleaned up very well.
Some time between then and now I've fitted new brake shoes and had the drums off more times than I'd care to mention adjusting and fiddling with the handbrake!!!! Not noticed any major grease or oil ingress into the brake drum area since, although I've noted a damp oily stain creeping from the rear of the hub along the rear axle tube moving toward the Diff!!!
Photos taken this morning coming up for two years since I gave it all a good clean;
Look familiar to anyone?
Fridayman, Oil on rear brake 
Had some spare time today, the kids were playing nicely in the garden and the sun was out, so out with the tools
It didn't take very long to get it all jacked up and apart, probably under a couple of hours, maybe less. And this is what I found, the inner seal must be faulty as there was a good egg cup full of gear oil between it and the bearing that fell out, luckily I'd pre planned and was ready for it, managing to save the drive this time. It was clear that either the outer seal or the 'O' ring had also failed as the oil that fell out was clearly contaminated with dirt/mud. Upon inspection I found a gap in the 'O' ring.
In-fact quite a large one as you can see
It's clear to me that someone has been in here before me due to marks on machined faces, but hey its a 14year old 170,000mile vehicle. I do have a theory surrounding the gap in the 'O' ring though, two years ago when I first discovered this oily mess someone suggested that it may be the 'O' ring at fault, so I ordered one from Milners in among another order of service parts. By the time it had arrived I'd done the clean up thing and put it all back together so I put the 'O' ring in the shed till this morning. As Fridayman discovered, its way to big and I wonder if whomever has been in here before had the same trouble but decided to cut and glue it to solve the problem and over time it has become unglued and shrunk a bit, hence the large gap
So now that the shaft is out, lets talk about the bearing. It feels to me to be smooth with no play, no lumps in its rotation, in-fact it's as smooth as a babies bottom. You can imagine that I'm reluctant to muck about with it, but my concern is that I've read of others suggesting that the gear oil will have washed through the bearing removing the bearings grease in the process!!!
Is this possible?
It's a sealed bearing isn't it?
So surely nothing can get in or out for that matter
I guess there must be a way for the gear oil to get past the bearing to the outer seal else you wouldn't get this;
Would you?
I'm not so sure, as I think that the outer seal is to stop dust and shite getting in not oil getting out!
I think that you get what you see in the above photo due to the gear oil leaking down the back of the hub into the bottom of the drum and then being thrown around inside while on the move. If not, then how's the gear oil getting passed the press fitted sealed bearing?
Nearly two years down the road from first discovering my oil leak and giving it a good clean then, this is what the inside of my brake drum looks like;
Dry and muddy
Except for this at the bottom front of the backing plate, slowly creeping up;
So looks as though my outer seal may be OK then, or is it?! The oil may just not be getting past there due to the huge bit of the 'O' ring missing thus any leaked oil is escaping before it has a chance to push past the sealed bearing and out of the outer seal. The bearing may just be so smooth because its full of lovely slick gear oil. Now I'm worried
Lol
I'd be interested in the thoughts from others, in particular the sealed bearing thing, sealed is sealed, right?
Sorry for the title, but even though I've now removed the N/S rear half shaft on Fiery to start my investigations as to where the oil is coming from and why! I still have not managed to find any detail as to how one goes about removing the bearing from the housing and the ABS rotor. Apart from people talking of hours of sweat and toil with grinders, chisels and big hammers and the occasional mention of an illusive SST!! So I hope that my title will bring others with more info and hopefully photos a plenty via Google to expand this thread into the future.
It starts like this for me, 07/08/2010 buy Fiery
Then a couple of months later post this thread Please have a look @ these pics of Fierys rear hub & advise
The crux of it was that my N/S rear brake drum was full of black greasy gunk and looked like this;
The up shot of what I did was empty a couple of cans of brake cleaner into and around the effected area until all trace of dirt and grease had been removed and popped it all back together, leaving the original brake shoes in situ as they cleaned up very well.
Some time between then and now I've fitted new brake shoes and had the drums off more times than I'd care to mention adjusting and fiddling with the handbrake!!!! Not noticed any major grease or oil ingress into the brake drum area since, although I've noted a damp oily stain creeping from the rear of the hub along the rear axle tube moving toward the Diff!!!
Photos taken this morning coming up for two years since I gave it all a good clean;
Look familiar to anyone?
Fridayman, Oil on rear brake
Had some spare time today, the kids were playing nicely in the garden and the sun was out, so out with the tools
It didn't take very long to get it all jacked up and apart, probably under a couple of hours, maybe less. And this is what I found, the inner seal must be faulty as there was a good egg cup full of gear oil between it and the bearing that fell out, luckily I'd pre planned and was ready for it, managing to save the drive this time. It was clear that either the outer seal or the 'O' ring had also failed as the oil that fell out was clearly contaminated with dirt/mud. Upon inspection I found a gap in the 'O' ring.
In-fact quite a large one as you can see
It's clear to me that someone has been in here before me due to marks on machined faces, but hey its a 14year old 170,000mile vehicle. I do have a theory surrounding the gap in the 'O' ring though, two years ago when I first discovered this oily mess someone suggested that it may be the 'O' ring at fault, so I ordered one from Milners in among another order of service parts. By the time it had arrived I'd done the clean up thing and put it all back together so I put the 'O' ring in the shed till this morning. As Fridayman discovered, its way to big and I wonder if whomever has been in here before had the same trouble but decided to cut and glue it to solve the problem and over time it has become unglued and shrunk a bit, hence the large gap
So now that the shaft is out, lets talk about the bearing. It feels to me to be smooth with no play, no lumps in its rotation, in-fact it's as smooth as a babies bottom. You can imagine that I'm reluctant to muck about with it, but my concern is that I've read of others suggesting that the gear oil will have washed through the bearing removing the bearings grease in the process!!!
Is this possible?
It's a sealed bearing isn't it?
So surely nothing can get in or out for that matter
I guess there must be a way for the gear oil to get past the bearing to the outer seal else you wouldn't get this;
Would you?
I'm not so sure, as I think that the outer seal is to stop dust and shite getting in not oil getting out!
I think that you get what you see in the above photo due to the gear oil leaking down the back of the hub into the bottom of the drum and then being thrown around inside while on the move. If not, then how's the gear oil getting passed the press fitted sealed bearing?
Nearly two years down the road from first discovering my oil leak and giving it a good clean then, this is what the inside of my brake drum looks like;
Dry and muddy
Except for this at the bottom front of the backing plate, slowly creeping up;
So looks as though my outer seal may be OK then, or is it?! The oil may just not be getting past there due to the huge bit of the 'O' ring missing thus any leaked oil is escaping before it has a chance to push past the sealed bearing and out of the outer seal. The bearing may just be so smooth because its full of lovely slick gear oil. Now I'm worried
Lol I'd be interested in the thoughts from others, in particular the sealed bearing thing, sealed is sealed, right?
