Lucas Oil in a 98 camry differential box?

[DLW]

98 camry 245,000 miles 4 cyl
Differential to driverside axle seal leaking again after replaced a few months ago.

I was told the differential is wearing out and needs or will need a diff-possibly total trans rebuild to correct this.

Short on cash and hesitant to putting big money in a high mile care with only fair cosmetic condition. Looking to maybe drive it thru winter till spring and re-evaluate and see what else goes wrong in the next 6 months-8-10,000miles(probably the trans if I keep driving it ha!)

It leaks a 4 inch circle on the ground after every drive. No noticible noises or problems driving yet. With a recent drain and fill I noticed some metal shavings on the differential drain plug, so some wear is occuring. I really could care less about the leaking fluid spots, more concerned about trans dying or safetly concerns.

I was at Wallmart and a Gallon of Lucas Oil Stabalizer is $32. Its enough to do 2 drain and fills and some left for topping of for leakage too.

Right on the Lucas gallon jug it says to use in leaking and worn differentials at a ratio of 50-100%. I was thinking of draining my diff box and pumping it full of Lucas Oil Stabalizer.

My hope is this would be better than straight trans fluid and maybe would leak less as it is thick stuff and maybe provide more protection to the gears compared to the regular thin Dexcron III stuff.

My concern is it will not do a bit of good and waste my time pumping the stuff in the box and making a mess and not provide any protection to a dying diff box. Also, concerned that I live in Chicagoland and it does get to zero a few times in the winter and the thick Lucas Oil stuff in the cold not being a good idea.

Also, if I keep driving it, will the differential eventually going bad give me any signs or warnings, or does the car just stop moving one day?

Any thoughts-comments on any of this appreciated. Thanks!

[Yuko]

You got some good life putting 245K miles on the transmission if it's original. I would try to replace the seal again. But if it's not possible, I read somewhere that some people used gear oil in the differential since it's a separate unit form the transmission on the 4 cly. You can try the Lucas Oil Stabilizer stuff since it's sticky and thick to slow the leak.