Thread: Puma Front Diff Contamination

The CV swivel housings are filled with a Molybdenum Disulphide based grease, this will migrate to the front differential bit by bit, making the oil look dark and icky.

It isn't a HUGE problem, but check the swivels aren't low on grease after a while.

JC

Hi Jim, This is perfectly normal if your referring to the oil being dark almost with a hint of green. This is caused by slight seepage from the inner half shaft seals which allows a very small amount of cv grease into the axle case from the swivels. Every defender from 200tdi onwards is like this, and it's nothing to concern yourself with. However it is worth annually checking the level of the cv grease in the swivels annually.
Ben

I'm sure I read the same response twice

There was another Defender 130 in my local area for a while several years ago. One place I saw it was in a garage with the swivel housings apart for replacement of the CV joints which had destroyed themselves. Think reason was lack of lubrication because grease has gone hard enough so it would not move back onto surfaces where needed after being displaced. So removed lubricant filler plugs on mine and pumped some hypoid gear oil in. Any excess presumably escaped into the diff because no leakage anywhere else. At least my CV's should now not fail because of an ill advised Land Rover measure to stop a couple of possible future oil leaks.

Also note the Land Rover solution to oil leaking onto brakes from hubs driven by floating axles by using grease in bearings instead. Grease will only work out of and not back into the splines between the drive axles and hubs that fit over them. So splines are prone to run dry and destroy themselves. No problem with same splines running in oil on diff end of drive axles. I got as far as buying proper seals to convert my hubs from grease to oil. However, interim fix seems quite satisfactory as permanent arrangement. I just occasionally remove standard LR plastic axle caps, about half fill them with a hypoid oil / grease mixture and slap cap back on. A bit of oil/grease could probably get through grease seals onto brakes but not a continuous supply as oil seal stopping oil from diff is still in place.

Originally Posted by Disco4_tech

I'm sure I read the same response twice

Going by the post times, I would say they were being typed at the same time.

Thanks all for the replies. I have only owned the Defender 6 weeks and thought I had a major problem.Thanks to the forum I have found it is not serious.
Jim