Thread: oil leak on outer front wheel

<span style="color:green">does it smell like diff oil....?</span>

just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.

Didn't have time to check it fully, but it's thinner than diff oil, more like swivel housing oil. But that was when it was hot.
I dont think my diff breather is blocked forcing diff oil out

swivel housing oil is diff oil. the oil will dribble out whether your breather is blocked or not. been there-done that
a lot of guys remove the inner axle seal that effectively separates the oil in the diff from the grease in the swivel housing. this will oil feed the swivel and bearings. it is very rare that oil fed bearings in landys will die, they tend to go on forever where-as greased ones often dry up and chew out.

Originally posted by barney
just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.

Is it that simple, replace the cover.
I thought that the diffs had their own oil supply, the swivels had their own oil supply, seperated by oil seals and the wheel bearing were greased.
If the cover is infact an oil seal then in heavy offroading the rubber caps could get damaged.

Just put in thicker oil. :wink: Works for me. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"Rovernaut\")</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"barney\")</div><div class='quotemain'>just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.[/b][/quote]
Is it that simple, replace the cover.
I thought that the diffs had their own oil supply, the swivels had their own oil supply, seperated by oil seals and the wheel bearing were greased.
If the cover is infact an oil seal then in heavy offroading the rubber caps could get damaged.[/b][/quote]

It is that simple - about 30 seconds work. Never damaged one, but they don't last very long.

Early 90/110 & Defenders have a seal between the diff oil and swivel (which often does not seal and doesn't matter much) but the bearings share the same oil as the swivel, although they are greased on initial assembly, so they run in oil, and last virtually forever, unlike the later ones that rely only on grease. But the later ones don't leak!

Originally posted by barney
(snip)
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.

How do you get yours to last that long? Mine only seem to last three or four.

Oh! Just checked - you live on the coast, less sunlight.