relative4

Working on a friend's '96 DX hatch manual. Couple months ago, he presented with typical right-side CV joint noise, and right (passenger) boot was torn. Outer, I think. Axle was clearly beyond re-booting, so I had him pick up a reman axle from Napa. Replacement went smoothly, in & out of garage in 45 minutes. Axle popped into diff with a nice normal feel. Symptoms gone, happy friend.
A few weeks later, he was back with a leaky radiator. While the hood was up, I checked my work on the axle, and found a ton of MTF all over the area. Pulled the axle out and measured its sealing face at 35mm. Verified the OEM spec on the seal was for 35mm. The seal felt pretty good, not stiff or anything, but maybe a little loose at 35mm. Sent him to the dealership for an OEM seal and some Honda MTF. New seal went in without difficulty; I set it flush with the outside face of the diff as my googling indicated, and as the old seal was installed. I greased the seal with high-temp grease and reassembled. The seal looked positioned well on the axle's sealing face. Drained and refilled the fluid.
That was like 3 weeks ago. I asked him a while back if he was leaking again, and he said no. Today, come to find out he's leaking at least as bad as before.
So... what have I done wrong, what am I missing here? Is this a common thing with a known solution? Thanks!

tony_2018

You forgot to clean up after installing new seal and axle to know for sure it it was leaking again or not.

relative4

Nope. Cleaned it dry as a bone, now it's covered with MTF.

egsleepercivic

Im with Tony, maybe it's the picture, but I would think you would see it in the 2nd picture more

relative4

Let me get this straight. Because the pictures, provided expressly to depict the insertion depth of the seal, show only the clean new MTF I just put in leaking, and not the old dirty MTF I cleaned off before filling with new fluid, you guys have decided that there is no leak? So if I had wiped off the clean MTF prior to taking these pics, I guess there would definitely definitely be no leak.

The question is not whether there is a leak. The question is, why would a Napa reman axle verified to be 35mm, and a brand new OEM seal, be leaking?

egsleepercivic

axle seal looks to be installed correctly, good luck fixing it, let us know how you solve it

tony_2018

Yup you got it straight, now lets see you curve it a bit and see if its really leaking from the new seal or from somewhere else.

You say you cleaned it up but man thats alot of dirt and debri still there.

But yeah like the other member said

mk378

Seals are different left vs. right because of the rotation of the shaft. I don't think this causes an immediate huge leak if you use the wrong one though. For immediate huge leak it's either the seal damaged during installation, wrong size seal, or bad surface on the axle. Buy another seal and try it on the axle first. Then drive it in with a seal installer so you are only putting force on the very outside edge. If you put force on the inner parts it will bend and leak.

You could add UV dye to the fluid to see if it is freshly leaked or not.

relative4

Problem found, it's unfortunately the differential bearing. That sucker is ALL kitty-wampus, I should have tried wiggling it before replacing the axle in the first place. Talked to the guy about it and found out he drove the bad axle with all the clicking for a month before calling me.

Still perplexed as to why it wasn't leaking like this before I replaced the axle. Maybe it was and I didn't notice cause of 20 years of filth.

Thanks mk378 for the helpful information.

TomCat39

I didn't read the whole thread, just the first post.

I bet you did the same thing I did and when you pulled the old axle out, it knocked the seal spring off the axle seal.

I didn't figure out my wifes leak until I replaced the seal and pulled the spring out from the differential area of the tranny after I got the seal out.

Without the spring to keep the seal snug against the axle, it will leak but look totally normal and feel fine.