TD4 Freelander Rear Diff Leak

Hello All,

I'm visiting my parents who have a 2004 TD4 Freelander. On the way to take the dog for a walk the other day I hit a pothole which didn't think was too bad but mum who was in the car thought it was a whopper.

On getting out of the car I noticed a gear oil type of smell and on closer inspection it appears to be coming out of this sort of breather hose that exits the top of the diff and then sprays over the rear silencer !

We've been worried about it as it seemed to loose a fair bit so yesterday I put some more differential oil in the diff but oil was coming out of the filler plug as I unscrewed it. It sprayed out a little more today, makes a right mess of the tailgate.

Any ideas to what's going on ?

Thanks in advance for any info.

The hose / pipe at the top is indeed a breather.

Topping up - you have the basics spot on but the car must be level when you do it. You should carefully add the right grade of oil until it trickles back out of the drive unit then stick the filler / level plug in.

Never heard of the gear oil being ejected by the breather - normally the driveshaft oil seals that pack up!

Cheers Rustymark,

Just seems odd that it suddenly started happening and that the diff was overfilled from new !?

it won't have been overfilled from new - some gear oil always settles behind the filler plug to pour out. just have it level (which if you don't have a ramp isn't easy) and undo the plug then add oil until you get the steady stream back out.

shouldn't give you too many probs....

Will do !

Thanks again.