OK, if you're brave enough to check this out, here's my issue.

 

I drive my truck 5 miles or 50 miles, when I park and get out of truck, I smell gear lube.....alot.

Hot gear lube. When I bought this truck 3 years ago, about 3 months into ownership, I smelled gear lube. It's unmistakable. Found an axel seal was leaking and saw gear lube on the tire after sitting overnight. Removed both axels and replaced outer seals.  Fast forward to about a year ago. Started smelling gear lube again. Haven't found any signs of axel leakage at all.

Is it possible I'm just smelling gear lube from the vent tube? The thing that has me puzzled is I don't remember smelling it this bad the last couple years. I haven't pulled the dually wheels yet, as it's a pain in the arse.

 

After typing this out, I guess my next step is pull the wheels and see what I can see...... that's the advice I'd give someone.

 

Funny how typing something is different from thinking something....

Well, instead of erasing all this, I'll pull the wheels tomorrow and let you know what I find. 

 

Maybe leaving this will help someone else. 

 

Could be an axle seal that hasn't puked all over your tire yet.  Get under there and sniff around.    Good luck.

Just be sure no one is watching..., you know, sniffing your rear end.

 

- John

Update:

Axel seal driver's side is starting to fail.

At risk of great embarrassment to myself, hoping my neighbors didn't see me, I climbed under truck to smell my rear end....😂😂😂

Took a light and looked inside the wheel. A moist ring is beginning to show on the wheel. Goes to show, trust your nose when you smell something different than usual.

 

When I replaced them before I did both. Napa had one SKF seal and one National seal. Wish I'd had paid attention to which seal went on which side....not that it really matters, but for curiosity sake. Guess I have a project for the weekend.....

 

Glad you got it figured out, sucks you have a project like that instead of fishing/barbecuing/etc.

5 hours ago, LorenS said:

Glad you got it figured out, sucks you have a project like that instead of fishing/barbecuing/etc.

Looking at the forecast, I may hold off until it cools down a bit. I'll get the seal tomorrow and be ready.

Funny thing is Mark my renter has been doing all my gasser work and just finished a job on a 2006 Chevy Z71 doing rear seals, new rotors, new calipers, and brakes. Just about 600 dollars worth of parts. When it left here the rear end no longer stinks....

Finally got around to doing the seal today. Not a hard job, but it sure is a heavy job. Glad I waited for 80° rather than the 100s we were having. Should take care of my rear end stinking.......

 

 

 

 

 

Well, at least on the truck 🙄🙄🙄