Rear Axle Seals

[Rambling]

Hey guys, I've got a pretty bad leaking right rear axle seal. I'm going to get it replaced sometime next week hopefully. But I'm wondering if I should replace the left rear axle seal as well, even though it's not leaking. My thought is if the right one is leaking, the left one won't be to far behind. Am I right in assuming this or should I just replace the seal that's leaking and hope for the best..? Any insight on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[JaredRAM2015]

That's a hard decision.

You could fix one side and leave the other alone, it it may not leak even past the day that you sell it...

You could also leave it alone and it leaks a month later...

If you replace the good seal... you could mess with a good thing and create a problem that you didn't have before...

Or you could replace the both seals and never leak again from either side...


If it was my truck, and I had an 03 with higher mileage... I would replace both and get good seals!

If it was a newer truck with low mileage and it felt like a defective part and not a "wear" issue, I would only do the 1.

 

[Rambling]

My truck is an '03 with 197,000 kilometers on it. So I'm assuming they're the original seals. And I just talked to the mechanic today who suggested I change both seals since the rear diff fluid is $30 a quart.

 

[Rambling]

Update: I got the rear axle seals changed on my truck last week. The one that was leaking came out in two pieces, more or less. And the other seal on the driver's side was starting to go too. So it was a good thing I had both seals replaced.