Okay you had your u-joints done we get that. was it just the drive shaft u-joints? because there are u-joints on your front drive shaft. Now there are going to be u-joints that come out of the front axle and connect to your tires..rotars and such. I dont kno if you really understand what u-joints they are talking about

 

yea, it is leaking out of the front right u-joint. and no i havnt got the drive shaft one replaced. they said it looked good..but img oign to have them replace when i take it there now. but yea it is dripping off the bottom of the front right u-joint.

 

so im pretty sure that i think that it is brake fluid.

 

if you just had your u joints replaced and now you have a thick oil leaking from your axle then that means that they damaged your axle seal. take it back to them and tell them that they must have hit the seal when they did the u joint. if it were brake fluid then it would be thin, not thick. smell the fluid, i bet it smells like the south end of a new york hooker, thats differential fluid.

and with u joints "looks good" and "feels good" are two totally different things. if you grab the drive shaft and try to shake it and it moves at all in the caps then the u joint is bad. but the best way to check it is to take the drive shaft off and rotate the yoke to feel for grinding or drag.

 

hey man, thanskf ro the reply. ok i took it in this morning, and they said they took the axle off when they replaced the u-joints, and it is probably fluid left over int he axle from when they took it off, and its just now coming out, because it is coming out on both sides now. we sprayed it off, and he said wait a week ro so and if it still leaks as bad then its probably a seal that needs replaced in the axle. but it looked like brake fluid to be honest. and as for the popping noise..he said he couldnt find out wat was making it. he chekd allt he tie rod ends, the joints..everything seemed pretty tight. anyway...thats all i heard.

 

if you think its brake fluid then check the pistons on the caliper, the bleed nut and the brake lines to see if they're wet. give all the fluid a shot of brake cleaner and it'll be clean and dry within a minute or two. if it gets saturated again then you will know exactly where it's coming from.

when i did my u joints i scraped the diff fluid out of the axle tube with a home made scraper and cleaned it with brake cleaner, then when i had a bunch of fluid coming out i knew that the seal was bad.

the driver side seal is a pita because you have to take both axles and the carrier out to access it.

if they're leaking then the shop you took the truck to is responsible for the leak. tell them that it wasn't leaking before they worked on it and that they should change the axle seals (at no cost to you).

as far as the popping noise, make sure all the bolts on your track bar are tight.

 

thanks for the info man. yea im pretty sure its not break fluid. everything looks good ont he brakes. its leakin out both sides on the axle. he said it migth just be left over from when they did the u-joints...but when i got home fromt he shop, i pulled it int he garage and let it sit and there is already a puddle going to the garage drain...so its leakin pretty vigorously. and as for the popping noise.....i dont know i cant figure it out either. i had it jacked up and checked allt he bolts and joints and everythig seems tight. i cant seem to find where its coming from. but when im driving around 10-30mph uc an feel it int he steering wheel a little bit...and u can faintly hear it..and it seems like u can feel it in the gas and brake peddles faintly also.

 

one guy on here (i think csxfan) had a loose track bar that gave him a popping noise. and why didn't that shop clean out the axle tubes before they put the axles back in? that just sounds lazy to me.

you might want to check the diff fluid daily if you're going to keep driving the truck till it gets new seals. and to keep it full you ought to hit wal mart up, its a lot cheaper there.

i think another noise source is the steering box, there is a diy for adjustment in the diy section. you should also make sure the pitman arm is at the proper torque. also check the torque on the bottom shock bolts and the steering stabilizer.

one other thing it could be is the new u joints. if they didn't put the c clips in the caps all the way and one popped out or if the caps are not seated correctly in the yokes then you could get a popping noise from the u joint moving in the caps.

 

i had a slight popping noise on mine and it turned out to be one of the bushings on my lower control arm was really worn and letting axle rock back and forth.