2005 Tunda DC 4x4

Hello everybody, I just recently purchased an 05 DC 4x4 Tundra with about 210,000 miles. Looks and runs well although it does have a few problems that I need some help solving. I noticed my power steering fluid reservoir is almost completely empty and I noticed one of those hoses is pretty caked up. Ill attack a photo and hopefully someone can help me identify a fix to this problem.. Also noticed that what I believe is the front differential "breather" and the other breather are caked up pretty good as well. I'll include pictures of both. I appreciate any advice!

 

The high pressure line of your PS is leaking. Replace it. Easy fix about 30 min. Those breathers are nonfunctional. Replace them and might as well do the hoses at same time. Again easy fix.

 

I'm about to replace the same hose on my truck. Here is what I ordered off Rock Auto
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=8079540&cc=1432861&pt=7320&jsn=600

The front diff breathers could have diff oil coming out from heating up and being overfilled. Hard to say for sure from the picture. Has the front differential fluid been changed? Is there oil anywhere else around the diff breathers?

 

I recently did mine and used the Gates hose.

 

That appears to be CV axle grease slung up on the ADD and differential breathers. If so, fix the CV’s, clean the hose lines if you wish or replace, take breathers off and clean them up. No need to replace….had same issue few years back.

 

I dunno, isn't it weird there's residual on top of the caps for the ADD and diff breathers, though? That almost looks like it's too far for the (notoriously leaky with age) valve cover gaskets to throw, and I'm not seeing any oil on the manifold heat shield or engine mount below.

@butter_bean97 you failed to mention, I think: Is the truck lifted at all? CV grease sling would be typical with any significant lift (1"+, maybe). 200k isn't a lot of miles on these trucks.

Now is a good time to get a baseline on maintenance. Timing belt, radiator, OEM lower ball joints, frame rust, fluids being the highest on the list. Tons more info on how to go about that here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

 

@shifty`
Yes the truck is lifted. I’m not sure how high, but it has Bilstein 5100’s on front and rear. Would this mean that I need to change out the cv axles? I know that the passenger side has a slow leak, but didn’t notice any leak on the drivers side.

 

Nope, just reclamp. Everything (I believe) you need to know is in that thread I linked.

 

Not weird at all. As I've mentioned already, it's the same issue I dealt with few years back. After fixing CV's and cleaning the breathers, grease never showed it's ugly face again. Of course it doesn't really matter, some folks listen to only those they wish.

 

I believe you, I'm just trying to figure out how it got so evenly distributed on the breather caps like that.

It makes sense the grease is coming from below, and not above. If it was coming from above, there'd at least be a smidge of it on top of the engine mount. but the fact it's all inboard from that, and knowing the outer boot loves to sling grease with lift ... what you're saying makes total sense.

I'm just over here scratching my head how there's such an even coat of crud on the cap.

 

Here is another angle. I noticed that the CV boot is intact and doesn’t seem to be throwing grease. Could it have purged some fluid out due to maybe overfill / pressure change from low temps?

 

You could remove the fill plug(s) to check. I don't see how it's physically possible to overfill so much that it comes out the breather though.

 

Thanks for the response. I’ll check/change the fluids and clean the lines and keep an eye on it.

 

Definitely looks like fluid came up so high it sprayed out of one of the breathers.

Heat causes expansion. If someone did something weird like ... they couldn't get the front diff plug off, so they refilled through the breather port (wouldn't surprise me, front diff fill plug is notoriously difficult for some), they probably overfilled and we're seeing the end result. Once the front diff generated heat, the fluid and hot gasses expanded, that thing would be spewing.

 

Maybe? Seems like it would be even harder to fill through the breather but... people be dumb.
My only other thought is that extended high speed driving in high temperatures could maybe cause some oil vapor to develop in the diff and be vented out the breather, but it seems like a lot of oil for that to be the cause.

 

We've had members here fill thru the rear diff breather hole b/c they made the stupid rookie mistake of opening the drain plug without trying to open the fill plug

I get it, some folks are eager to start draining. But ... I guess you only learn the hard way once on that one. (I'd hope)

I agree on the oil volume though. That looks like it's several ounces of oil product that barfed up.