Hey everybody! After my first time out playing in the mud and on some trails last weekend I noticed that I had some sort of oil or lubricant splattered on the inside of my drivers side wheel well. I also noticed that this tube had fluid running almost all the way down it. My guess was that this is the diff breather and that I some how managed to overheat it which caused fluid to come out. Am I right? On Sunday I’m planning to go out to some sand dunes; will I need to look further into this before I use 4WD again? Am I just making a big deal out of nothing? I’m still new to Jeeps so I may be over-reacting but I don’t want to mess it up. Thanks for any help - KY

 

I have it too... Accept my frame rail and pretty mugh everything above it is coated in the stuff. I think i read somehere its normal? I cant imagine it is though.

 

Yup! That's the breather for the diff alright. My understanding(which is limited) is that it usually only happens when the diff fluid is overserviced. Overheating makes some sense though.

 

Have you changed you diff fluid? If you overfill them, the gear oil will puke out the breather tubes.

 

Make breather tubes longer and you will have less chances of getting water or mud on the inside of your diff run the tubes up higher. If your tube is below the water line when you play you will contaminate your fluid . I ran my tubes up to a hight of 5 foot on my dodge ram i was in georgia and in the swamps a lot.

 

Nothing to worry about.