Hey,

I changed my ball joints this past weekend. For the last few days everything has been fine. Tonight I was looking at my driver side and noticed there was a bit of oil splatted all over the driver side (JKUR) wheel well, inside of the tire and all over. This did not happen on the opposite side and I don't know what could/has gone wrong. Any assistance would be great. Thanks.

 

Axle seal needs to be replaced. get underneath and feel above the c gusset for oil.

 

I had to replace mine last year with 2k miles

 

Did you pull the axle shafts?

My guess is leaky oil seal...pulling / installing the axle shafts it is real easy to tear the seal.

Good news is oil seals are cheap, bad news is the oil seal is a pain in the ass to change because they are located inside the pumpkin.

 

Check for oil here:



If this is where it's coming from, the axle seal could be bad.

However, there is the possibility it's just oil in the tube from when you had the axle shaft out.
So, check the fluid level in the differential. Top it up if needed.
Clean all the residue from the "C", and anywhere else you see it.
Keep an eye on it to see if the suspected leak continues.
If it does, the seal needs replacement, which means the axle shafts and differential have to come out.

 

Did you replace the oil in the front diff recently and maybe overfill it?

 

I checked again today and it looks like no new oil has come out. But this could also mean I am low on diff oil. I will have to pull it all apart this weekend and fix the seal. Then refill the oil.

 

I remember the tech who regeared my JK said to always drain the diff oil before pulling the axles or the tubes fill up and make a mess. Not sure how true this is and how much oil would actually go into the tubes.

 

Check the oil level first.
Top it up if necessary.
Keep an eye on it.
Don't take it apart until you verify it's still leaking.

 

There is a lot of oil in the tubes... I did a diff fluid change on my Dana30 and after letting it drain from the drain plug I couldn't even get a full quart of new fluid in, before it started coming out of the fill hole. I didn't measure how much oil drained out so I was worried that maybe the new fluid hadn't gotten into the axles yet, but I tried topping off a few days later and didn't get that much more fluid in.