Seeping wheel seals

Change the vents.

 

We had a Cascadia single axle like that, on top of axle gaskets, the inside tires wore quicker than the outers. Meritor couldn't find the issue. Our Michelin Rep found it, they have these weight sensitive mats and drove the truck across and found that there was a lot more weight on the inner tires. Meritor said that the truck was overloaded to bend the axle, which we know it wasn't. Freightliner did cover the housing swap after a lot of bickering.

When they pull the gaskets are they fretted up or in 1 piece? Did anyone check that the wheel bearings are adjusted properly? You'll never keep a gasket in there if there is too much end play on the bearings. Meritor had an axle vent campaign many years ago, but it was for oil leaking out of them, they gave new vents and a question mark shaped hose. The ones that I've found clogged up, would push oil past the wheel seals, not the axle gasket.

There's a few things that can cause that. Installation error is not likely after 7 times. Bad wheel bearings or out of adjustment. Out of round, bent or twisted axle (not likely on all 4). Hub out of round/machined wrong (again not likely on all 4). Bent axle, which could be an issue if the welding jig was off and they had a run of them built not so straight.

I have a lot of experience dealing with Meritor warranty, so here's my warnings. The Meritor rep will probably be a nice guy and knowledgeable, but expect him NOT to commit to fault or get any quick answers. Never tell them that what he told you was good, only tell him "we'll see if it works". They'll be looking for you to accept their solution and sign off that the issue is closed, never tell him that it's fixed unless you are 100% sure that it is. They have to report what they find and it'll go to someone above him for a solution, his/her job is to spend as little money as possible, which means to figure out a way to blame someone else. They train their reps well, they are smart people and they'll probably figure out what is going on, but you wont get the full story. What will happen is that they will replace all 4 gaskets again, the rep will do his checks and make sure it's done by the book. Then he will leave and your dealership will play hell trying to get answers when they leak again.

Hopefully you have a better experience that I have, but I've gone through this at least 10 times over the years and it has not gotten any better.

 

Like GrapeApe said, Meritor warranty is terrible for paying for anything. As for your problem, I have seen machining that was too rough and you could see the cut lines the tooling made and feel them. The mating surfaces were not smooth, but like an old record with the grooves in it.

 

I second replacing the vents!! Cheap, easy and cured my seeping problem

 

It sounds like you are talking about the paper seal on the axle end where it bolts to the hub correct? Those are not usually called wheel seals, so you may have confused a few people.

If it is the hub end to axle seal, did they try using pematex or something similar? I dont use those paper gaskets. They leak oil on my shinny wheels.

 

what he said......those paper gaskets work for some, but not for other.One thing to remember on the paper gaskets, if they over tighten them, it may crush a paper gaskets making it useless sometimes depending on the application. those axle flange nuts and studs don't have to be hammered down with a 3/4 impact like I have seen some do. that casues other problems as well.

I personally don't like the paper gaskets. I just use the good black permatex silicone. works great. this also what is used{or similar silicone products} to seal the diff. housing to the axle housing. it its good enough for that, its good enough for the axle flanges.

besides that, like tim b said, when those paper gaskets "seep", its gets on my nice shinny polished wheels and me or the DOT don't like it.

 

Most of the newer axle flanges are a steel gasket now. Are you using chrome axle caps?