Hatchman

Well, I just found out my axle housing is leaking on the passanger side, right where the axle tube goes into the "pumpkin". It's a slow leak, I don't have a drop of diff fluid on my garage floor, but it's enough to get most of the tube wet and I can tell where it's been splattering on the panhard bar and such.

I haven't seen any other thread of this happening to an S197. Anybody have any experience or advice for getting it fixed? Can't go warranty, I'm pretty sure the dealership will say the KB caused it, even though I found the leak during the dyno tune right after the instal.

I guess the best thing would be have it gutted and welded.

Thanks for the advice,
H

tx2005gt

are you sure that it is not comming out of the diff vent?

Hatchman

That's a possiblilty, it is on that sida above the axle tube. Just strange that it would start leaking now after I changed it 17K miles ago. And I get under my car pretty often. I changed the lower control arms out twice, once just a few hundred miles ago and I always check for leaks.

So, what I'm going to do is put on the new AL diff cover, clean everything up real good, top it off to the perfect level, then give it a couple of days and see exactly where it's coming from.

Hopefully, it was just coming out the breather.

Dysan

I just noticed some leaking on my rear axle but on the driver's side. Doing the same thing as you, greasing up my LCA's. I'm going to make an appt with Ford this week and see. Thank goodness I got the extended warrantee as I'm at approx 63k miles on my car now but I'm covered up to 75k.

rog06gt

Same here, coming out of the breather, I checked the oil level, good to go...
I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Cheers

Hatchman

Yes, it was coming out the breather, but I figured that out about 7 months ago.

MaverickMLFD371

yup, I have the same problem too, fluid coming out of the breather on my passenger side part of the axle. noticed this last week when I had the car up on the lift installing my CHE K-Member brace w/ TL, the breather feels very loose, and I asked my shop guy and he says thats normal, cause it needs to breathe. but @ 26,000 miles, i dunno why, it seems like I lost a good amount of fluid based upon the trail it left on the axle. plus i have the whipple.

Dysan

Everyone with the breather problem reports the leak on the passenger side though and mine is on the drivers side. I've also started to notice a whine when turning so I suspect I've lost fluid.

06GT

Anyone got pictures of the breather location, and what can be done to extend the hose or whatever that comes out of it?

I'm noticing some fluid leakage after some time on the road course

70MACH1OWNER

The fill plug is on the drivers side and the breather vent is on the passenger side. You can get a little bit of oil from either side. If it doesn't reach the garage floor I wouldn't worry about it.

06GT

I'm familiar w/ the fill plug on the driver's side. Is the vent tube in the same location on the passenger side?

I'm not worried about it getting on my garage, I'm worried about it getting on my tires when I'm road racing! It seems to be coming out in hard left-hand turns now that I've equipped the car w/ slicks!

I didn't see any tube coming out of my diff when I looked at it today, but I couldn't get a very good view from under the vehicle on mini-ramps. Is there anything I can do to plug the vent temporarily? And what are the consequences of that for 20-min high-speed bursts?

70MACH1OWNER

The vent is up high on the pass side. The vent is on the upper side of the pumpkin. While I don't road race I would think it would be hard for fluid to come out of the vent and get under your tires....but the guy behind you might have an issue!!

06GT

Haha, no joke. It managed to get as far as my passenger side LCA, so it's getting pretty **** close to the tire

Also I'd be worried about spinning someone else out, or getting black-flagged due to dumping fluid on the track, not to mention just plain running out of fluid!

I'll try and get a better look at the thing later on this week. Anyone got any pics of this during a rearend swap or anything?

Rudiepoo1

Got the same issue here. Noticed a little fluid on the garage floor and I'll have to recheck. Last time I was at the dealer for an oil change the tech noticed it, brought it to my attention saying that it looked like the diff had been overfilled possibly and then wiped off the excess that was on the axle tube. I had an initial issue of some diff fluid leaking from the bottom of the Ford Racing cover and had to get a new replacement which after that it's been bone dry but now as stated it's coming from the passenger side like others here.