Oil leak Advice Needed (pics)

Well...my Landie has decided to punish my smugness for passing the MOT with no advisories. After driving back from the MOT centre and parking up on my driveway...it decided to **** out some oil. Normally it is very oil-tight.



At first I thought it was brake fluid coming from the brake backplate...but further investigation shows it coming from the axle (and it is deffo oil)






Looks like it is coming out of the end of the axle tube (see circled area below):




What work is involved to sort this? Just a gasket? and does it need alot of stripping down?


Cheers

check that the axle breather isn't blocked.

Those flange bolts sometimes work loose, but the oil could be coming from the swivel seal and dripping down onto the flange. The quick way of changing the swivel seal and flange gasket is to take the wheel off, disconnect the steering linkages and brake pipe, undo the flange bolts and pull the entire hub out.You can then take the seal retainer and seal out. The long way is to strip down the hub in situ.

Thanks guys...I will check breather..and if that is ok it will be wheel-off time. I may as well re-paint them while the weather is good

Basic question...but how does one check the axle breathers are not blocked?

blow down it

Newer axles have a bent tube you can blow through. Early axles have a breather valve bolted to the top of the axle, unscrew and blow through.

oxides said:

Newer axles have a bent tube you can blow through. Early axles have a breather valve bolted to the top of the axle, unscrew and blow through.

Click to expand...

if it is blocks, you can clear it with petrol or thinners. There is a ball bearing inside that should rattle and move freely when you shake it.

J

Okay, will unbolt and have a look. Knowing the amount of time this vehicle has spent following cattle and sheep around, I am less than enthusiatsic about giving the axle a kiss!!

RaggedJoe said:

Okay, will unbolt and have a look. Knowing the amount of time this vehicle has spent following cattle and sheep around, I am less than enthusiatsic about giving the axle a kiss!!

Click to expand...

:doh: with an air-line!

I fixed it!!

It was two loose flange bolts.

Call me a suspicious bastid but.... the two loose bolts looked cleaner than the others...and the other bolts were solidly tightened up.....also, one of the wheel nuts was so torqued up I actually snapped then wheel wrench trying to remove it (I jumped on it with my 20 stones of weight!!). I was the last person to remove the wheel until the MOT the other week.....If I had a bad mind I would suspect the MOT garage loosened the bolts to create a leak and torqued up one of the bolts to stop me removing it...or I could be talking crap (bottle of wine talking?).

Cock up verses conspiracy theory! I think you're being paranoid - I've had these bolts work loose and I check them every time I do any work on the axles now. Nuts seize - it's a landy innit?