Rear axle seals weeping, overheated causing this?

[Matto]

Good Morning Everyone,
Had a sticking parking brake assembly, could this have caused the axle tube seals (near wheels)to fail prematurely? The brakes were dragging slightly, causing the hubs to be hotter than normal, until I fixed the cable ends.

 

[Familyguy]

Very doubtful. I think it's just a coincidence.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Matto
Good Morning Everyone,
Had a sticking parking brake assembly, could this have caused the axle tube seals (near wheels)to fail prematurely? The brakes were dragging slightly, causing the hubs to be hotter than normal, until I fixed the cable ends.


Possibly, but if it got that hot you would see lots of smoke coming out of the brake assembly.
Have you checked to make sure your vent tube is open?

 

[Matto]

Yes, I checked the vent tube for obstructions, but it was clean as well as the inlet to the axle tube. I have been reading up on this since I posted, and it appears to be a VERY common problem with the F150's. The brake problem must be just have been coincidental. Other than the wonderful smell of the fluid, it only makes a mess on the inner diameter of the rim and brake assembly backing plate. Suppose I'll wait for it to really start to leak, then get it to a shop.
Thanks,

 

[mechtech2]

Sure. That area could get REALLY hot.
But somehow I don't believe it is the only contributing factor to the seal demise..

 

[MNgopher]

I had this happen on my '99 F150 a few years ago, but in the opposite order. The rear axle seal started leaking on the drivers side, but the gear oil managed to contaminate the brake pads as well - ended up being a full brake job with over 1/2 the life left in the pads - boo! I had about 160,000 miles on the truck at the time, so thought nothing of it.

Two months later my parking brake froze up and the pad delaminated from the shoe in the parking brake mechanism (inside ethe hat on the rotor) - made a lot of noise, but didn't overheat or warp the rotor, so it ended up just being a parking brake rebuild - more expensive than you would think!

 

[JohnBrowning]

It would have to get hot enough to melt the seal or make it as brittle as rock candy. The difference between seal failure and a long happy life is a fairly narrow one. Most seals start to self destruct around 165°F. Their is not need for the seals in your axle to be able to take any more then 195° so if the brakes where draging and the heat was getting to the seals I think you would know the damage would be visualy evident.

Normaly axle seals fail due to all the microscopic debris from the ring and pinon gears. If you change your gear oil ever 24K or 12 months the axle seals will last well past 12 years. The reasont hey fail so often on GM and Ford vehicles is usually the change interval of 100K which many other's are comping.

I once say a GM rear end under warranty that one of the plant Janitors drove that looked like someone built a model of Mt. Fuji out of metal shaving right under the ring and pinion. Their was almost no fluid left it had all cooked off and the paint was blistered off the diff cover. Keep in mind this unit failed under waranty. The seals where fine. Now I can assure the heat from that type of melt down of the gears would equal the heat from the brakes but unlike the brakes the heat had to be transfered down the axle shafts and out to the bearing as that is how heat escapes from this type of set up when a failure happens. So I think it is just two unrelated events clustering in one location. How often do you check that area with any keen eye?

 

[Tommyboy]

Had this happen w/ my '97 Expedition. Axel seals both failed and leaked. This was not long after my sister drove it down off the mountain pass w/ the E-brake on (my dash light quit working for some reason). When I pulled the axels out, and the spider gears fell out, it was almost impossible to reinstall due to the clutch packs in the limited slip diff.