Rear Differential Leak?

Greetings all!

I have a 2021 Tundra with 15k miles on it. The truck is used lightly on most days, but several times a year I load it up with our 6,500 lb trailer and put it to good use.

This past weekend, I loaded up the trailer, one of my kids, and headed to the park for a camping weekend. After unhitching and setting up at the park, I drove the truck (sans trailer) down to pick up some firewood. As I drove down there, I did so with my driver's side window open, and heard a tremendous amount of creaking from the rear of the truck as I drove over bumps. I wrote it off as "stuff in the back of the truck moving around" but a couple of (unloaded) days later, I'm still hearing it, especially while in reverse.

This is all side story (thanks for hanging with me so far). After dropping the kids off at school this morning, I backed onto my driveway and it was super loud - enough so that I decided to get on my hands and knees and see if anything under the truck looked amiss. Suspension wise, nothing obvious, but (likely unrelated), I saw this underneath.

Now I'm no engineer (wait, actually I am, but...airplanes), but this does NOT look good. I don't think it's the cause of the creaking sound, but certainly is not okay. I booked an appointment at my local dealer for next week, but between now and then, have you all seen this before?

Thanks.

 

My 2019 looked a bit like that. Then it stopped.

 

Lots of pictures just like yours on here never herd it was an actual problem

 

Pull the plug and check the level.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/rear-differential-leak.53330/#post-1391417

 

My 2019 had this same thing. I pulled the plug to allow any excessive fluid to drip out. Replaced the breather and checked torque for all the mounting bolts for the carrier. Cleaned all up and never saw another leak.

 

Spray it down with some brake clean and monitor. They usually always clear up after some miles.

 

Make sure the breather isn't stuck/plugged.

 

Thanks all for the responses and notes. I have an appointment for the truck to go in for another issue on Tuesday, so they'll take a look at that time and see if anything needs to be done.

 

Clean it up and monitor. I would check the fluid level too

 

Just to follow up and close the loop on this...

The truck has been at the dealer for the past few days. I can pick it up today.

They found the source of the creaking. It was up front, not in the rear as I initially thought. The noises were caused by the TRD skid plate getting a bit loose. They re-torqued it back to spec and are reporting that the noise is now gone.

As for the diff, they replaced the gasket and have been monitoring it for leaks. As they haven't observed any, it should be ready to go. I'll just keep an eye on it over moving forward, but I'm not too worried.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

It's so freakin' annoying. Wife's TRD PRO Sequoia does the same.

 

Glad you got it resolved!

 

Anytime I hear creaking, the first thing I check are the skid plates or cat plates (if you have them). They are almost always the culprit for me. I'm constantly having to retighten the stupid things as the bolts strip out easily.

Oh and FWIW, for anyone else with that rear diff issue, my 2020 has the exact same pattern of seepage on the diff. I changed my rear diff fluid at 50K and it drained out almost exactly what was specified (maybe a bit more). Never a drop on the pavement, pretty confident it is a non-issue.

I relocated my breather to the rear tail light at the same time, just in case.

 

I honestly hadn't even thought about the skid plate being the cause, but now I'll know if I hear it again.

 

Yea, it's crazy to think that they can make that much noise, but they make a heck of a racket when loose.