Driveaxles leaking with new seals

[Corolla1027]

Hello all,

I recently replaced a couple gears in my 1998 corolla manual transaxle. The 4th gear had been damaged due to low fluid levels. The fluid got low because of a driveaxle seal leak.

I replaced both of the driveaxle seals, but it's still leaking. The driveaxles themselves seemed to be in pretty good shape. Does anybody have any idea what else I can do to fix this? I tapped the seals all the way down until they touched the lip... maybe bringing the seals out a bit would help? I'm totally stumped.

When I had an alignment done on it, the mechanic noted that both of the seals were seeping.. however, I can only see that the passenger side (long shaft) axle seal is seeping.

Thanks.

[Corolla1027]

Nobody has any ideas?

[sam333]

How much play is in your drive axels( up and down movement right at the trans)? The side bearings that hold the differential in place can wear enough( alot of play) that the seals leak. My ring and pinion and side gears /shims were very worn and this caused a lot of noise and movement in my axels( no leaking , but I had to replace both side gears and shims ). Its very east to rip the seals as you are installing the axels. Did you position the seals in the right place? There is wiggle room, but too far in, or out, or cocked, and they will/can leak. Is there a grove worn in the drive axel where the seal rides? Did you use Toyota seals? Did you gouge or scratch the seal bores in the trans when you when you replaced them ( even a small scratch will cause a leak).

[EdW]

I recently did both seals on my 98 LE and the thing I noticed is that there's no stop when installing the seal, so as Sam says, you can indeed put it in too far. Luckily I had a ballpark idea of where they should be located in the bore, and just as a precaution, ran a bead of RTV around the outside of the seal housing where it contacts the bore. All seems well now, and I do have vertical play in my inner CV's too. Also, I went with OEM seals from the dealer, not sure if the aftermarket can cause an issue or not, but the ones I got looked pretty beefy.