Do It Myself or Let Them Try Again?

[k1n3k]

I took the ol' Rubicon to a local shop to have the rear wheel bearing done. Either they messed it up or got defective parts. A week later the thing is puking gear oil out enough to leave puddles when I park. not a few drips, puddles. They're willing to do it again for free, but I'm on the fence. Debating if I should just bite the bullet and buy a hazard fraught press and do it myself... Its a long story, but after the crash/fire/flood at the machine shop, I've been limited to what tools I have access to and no longer can work in that space while its being rebuilt. Frustrating as hell to say the least.

So what your thought? Let the "pros" have another shot on their own dime, or just bite the bullet, but the tools and pay a second time to do it right myself? I don't wan't people touching my stuff but tools and space are a problem.... I can yank the axle in the driveway easily but where in the hell am I going to put a press???

 

[Zorba]

They're offering to stand behind their work. As they should. Let them.

 

[TheBoogieman]

Let them do it again (and again) until it's fixed. That's what you originally paid them to do.

 

[ItchyDong]

Pros make mistakes. If they’re willing to stand behind their work, let them. Imagine how annoyed you’d be if they were blaming you for this and weren’t going to cover it.

 

[CharlesHS]

If it's puking enough gear lube out to form puddles; then the problem is either the seal was set at a different depth where there is an imperfection in the axle sealing surface, the axle seal wasn't set 360* flush or a defective/poor quality seal was used.
As others have responded; they are accepting responsibility; let them resolved the problem, but ask them to show your what the problem was.

 

[speeding_infraction]

Let them stand behind their work. I had a shop put in the fuel pump on my comanche 3 times before they got it right.

 

[mrblaine]

I'm okay letting them fix it but I would pull the axle shaft out far enough to get some pics and post them. While the advice above is not flawed, there is only one place the bearing sets to, against the shoulder on the shaft. That fully predicts where the seal has to ride and that can't change. Whether or not they got it there is a different story.

My guess is they missed the difference between disc and drum brake axle retainers, used the flat one for drums and the seal moved out of the housing end and pouring fluid out.

You might be able to check that with a floor jack. Get the tire off the ground and see if you can move the tire in and out about a 1/4" or so. The caliper may make that difficult so not a definitive test or as definitive as pictures.

 

[mrblaine]

Pros make mistakes. If they’re willing to stand behind their work, let them.

Pros do, more often the helper for the pro up front is the weak link when the pro doesn't have time to check their work. The thing I missed is they may have used the right retainer and put it on backwards.

 

[mrblaine]

I had a shop do my axle u-joints on two different Jeeps because I'm unable to do pretty much everything now. Both times the axle seals leaked puddles the next day. The first time he took responsibility for it, the second time he blamed old axle seals. I blamed his 350lb "helper" that was always sitting in a sturdy chair eating when I saw him. Another shop charged me over $900 to fix it. I wasn't going to pay him to fix it twice. Either way, I got screwed.

You should have asked. The inner axle seals have a stamped metal forcing cone that makes it almost impossible to damage the actual seal. If the axle shaft came out, they didn't take a hammer to the splines and create a sharp edge or roll it around in some sand and shove that into the seal lip, the chances of a damaged seal upon reinstall are next to zero.

What does happen 99% of the time is the diff is overfilled. Correct fill height is below the bottom seal lip when the shaft is removed. If it is above, then the oil in the diff runs out into the axle tube and eventually makes its way out the end and the owner reports "puddles" from a "bad" seal.

We do lots of brake kit installs. We do one side at a time, we raise the side we are working on higher than the other side because I don't like that phone call and I don't like trying to explain to owners that there is nothing wrong except a delayed appearance of all the extra oil they wanted to put in.

This is what the inner seals look like. There is practically no way to damage the seal since the forcing cone lines it up and shoots the shaft right through the middle of the seal. If you paid me to make one leak, it certainly wouldn't be my first thought to shove a just removed shaft through it.

 

[AndyG]

Pros do, more often the helper for the pro up front is the weak link when the pro doesn't have time to check their work. The thing I missed is they may have used the right retainer and put it on backwards.

I had a real capable shop do the same thing….poured.

Also, the same shop fixed my 6.7 diesel head and routed a wire wrong-

As a boss, I know firsthand. It’s hard to keep an eye on everybody.

 

[hear]

I had a real capable shop do the same thing….poured.

Also, the same shop fixed my 6.7 diesel head and routed a wire wrong-

As a boss, I know firsthand. It’s hard to keep an eye on everybody.

6.7! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Christian.mers]

We’re all human, mistakes happen. Let them fix it till they get it right

 

[k1n3k]

Alright, I have it scheduled to be redone on Thursday. As for pulling it apart, I'll grab some pics of it when they take it apart at the shop. They do let customers back in the shop to inspect stuff on request. I can ask to see the axle. If I tear it apart to take pics, I'd just change the bearing as its only another 30 min of work. When he did it the first time I wandered back just before he put the axle shaft back in the housing, I did see that it is the correct plate, and the correct orientation with the lip on the plate facing inward. I'm betting either the seal is bad or the bearing isn't seated.

So we'll see on Thursday then.

 

[speeding_infraction]

They do let customers back in the shop to inspect stuff on request.

That's a good sign, means they think they have really dumb customers, or they trust their technicians to do stuff right.

 

[AndyG]

6.7! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know man….sickening

 

[BC Moto]

My shop had to take my jeep twice and it was having the same issue and I wanted to just take it back and do it myself but they refused and made it right with no leaks and no charges

 

[hear]

I know man….sickening

You may have missed what I did there. Or you may have been under a rock for the past 4-6 weeks.

 

[TurboTJ]

I had a leaking seal on my Rubicon. I don't have a press and didn't want to deal with an unknown shop to get it replaced. So being pragmatic I bought some Revolution chrome-moly axle shafts with pre-pressed on bearings. It was a quick and easy fix. An expensive solution? Probably not when you think about the labor cost to get anything done these days.

 

[AndyG]

You may have missed what I did there. Or you may have been under a rock for the past 4-6 weeks.

Rock most likely….fill me in man

 

[hear]

Rock most likely….fill me in man

you just say "six seven" and hilarity ensues. I'm too told to understand it, but not too old to participate correctly.