Morning all,
Had a duh! moment this last road trip. Got a flat in bf nowhere. No big deal, jacked her up and threw on the spare. Finally got out of the woods and drove 100 or so miles at highway speeds. Had to gas up and looked underneath while pumping. "What the....?" Pinion seal leaking like a sieve and gear oil all over the pumpkin (It's never leaked before). Thought about it for a minute and looked closer at the spare. It turned out to be a different size ( 265/75); and the tires I am running are (255/85). Anyways, switched the spare to the front and drove another 400 miles home. Seems like the leaked stopped, the oil still looks/smells normal and it didn't really loose much. Question: did it damaged the limited slip/diff at all? Everything seems normal.

 

Does it have a limited slip? If its an open diff it may have increased wear and heat for a short time but should be ok. I would change the oil and do a visual inside at the minimum though.

 

Hey biltit,
Yes. Limited slip. I'll be taking a look at it. Kinda a bummer since I just did a refresh in the last 5k.

-D

 

The clutch pack on the Limited slip, might be worn after running two sizes.
I would do a cover pull, fluid change, and if all looks good, button it back up with some new fluid, and go out and see if the limited slip still works well.
Check the breather tube too, as it sounds like the heat and pressure was pushing the fluid out the pinion seal.
The breather tube might be plugged up.

 

Thanks for the input guys. oliver foster, I will be pulling the cover and doing another flush, but as of now, all operations appear normal: LSD works normal (just got more snow to test it on), no more leaking (even @ highway speeds), no shudder with hard acceleration from stop, etc., so I think I caught it early enough. I had made sure the breather tube and connection pipe on the axle was clear awhile ago, so not sure why it didn't do it's job?