What is this stuff?

[Chris Crash]

Hey guys,

Almost have all the kinks worked out on my swap here. But one problem. The tranny seal has been leaking and the drivers side axle is like...sticking out a little bit. I'm fixing that tomorrow.
But anyway, I kept checking the fluid level in the tranny relatively often while I was at school the past two weeks, and somehow it never got too low even though there were huge puddles of the fluid under the car.

Today I checked it again before I came home, opened the fill plug and this came pouring out:


Sorry for the shitty quality but my cell phone is all I had. It was kind of like milky coffee, but really thick. Two days ago when I checked, it looked like normal gear oil. Does anyone know what the hell happened?

[hill8570]

Water ingress from the tranny cooler?

Any tranny fluid floating around in the radiator?

Gah...nevermind -- you're running a M/T now, ain't ya?

Still looks like the milkshake you get when mixing water with oil, but damned if I know where you'd get the ingress on an M/T...

[Chris Crash]

Think it could be water?
Yeah it's manual, so, no coolers or coolant anywhere near there.

But after checking it on Tuesday when it still looked normal, I didn't really put the plug all the way in. Maybe half in? I just didn't want to tighten it up because it sure is a bitch to get out. It did rain in Charlotte pretty heavily last night/today so it's not like there wasn't water available.

I really hope that's the case that my own stupidity just got some water in there and I can drain and fill it and problem solved.

Maybe tomorrow I'll pour some water and gear oil in a cup and see if they make that looking stuff.

[chronoti]

water + oil = milk

well when you do your test the oil going to float on top, make sure you get something to mix it good (like a few gears flying around at a few thousand rpm's) just think of salad dressing

[EEngineer]

yep...that's water + oil

just flush out the gear oil and put back in fresh oil

i'm rocking a bad tranny seal as well.....dripping slowly :p it sux ass, but too much pain to fix it

[Chris Crash]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

yep...that's water + oil

just flush out the gear oil and put back in fresh oil

i'm rocking a bad tranny seal as well.....dripping slowly :p it sux ass, but too much pain to fix it

The seal isn't a big concern, I think the axle being partly out is the main leak problem. I don't know about on the gen 3 but on the gen 4, you don't have to take the axle out of the hub to replace the seal! You can just take the brakes off, separate the hub from the control arm and pull it out of the transmission all at once. That might help you fix your seal, unless you have to fix the passenger side, in which case...I send you my condolences. haha

Is the transfer case and transmission connected, i.e., when I open the drain plug on the tranny, that gets the fluid out of the t-case too, right?

Originally Posted by chronoti

water + oil = milk

well when you do your test the oil going to float on top, make sure you get something to mix it good (like a few gears flying around at a few thousand rpm's) just think of salad dressing

Yeah after I replied I was thinking about how water and oil won't mix very well...
But I guess the gears would sure mix it up! I had checked it right after driving to a flat spot, so that is very plausible.

[EEngineer]

yep....passenger side....=[

drain plug drains everything i think

[Chris Crash]

Originally Posted by EEngineer

yep....passenger side....=[

drain plug drains everything i think

Damn that sucks dude. It took me, seriously, about 2 hours to get that clip back in when I installed the manual axles. Maybe I just didn't have the right tools or know how to get it, but that angle you have to be at from below is a bitch.

I just took the smallest vise grips I had, opened them as wide as possible. Got them on the clip, tightened them as much as i could. Then I used my fingers (poor choice, use a screwdriver next time!) to push/hold it in place and release the vise grips. If you use your fingers, it will pinch them in there. And that just...well that just sucks.

[Chris Crash]

Does anyone know what this seal is called? I checked 1sttoyotaparts.com and it had nothing. I don't want to order the wrong thing.

It's the drivers side axle seal, I guess. But my manual doesn't give it a name or a part number, it just says "seal"