So after about 1200 dollars in labor and pain later...and research and trial and error i've found that I may as well have stayed with my vibrating axles...this job has been freaking awful my mechanic officially hates me...worst thing ever...

when doing front axles, always leave 1/8 inch or so between the seal and the axle, don't seat it all the way in or it goes in too far and leaks...always make sure the ends of your axes are smooth and if not sand them down...and always install slowly and carefully an imperfect install will cause a leak, even slightly not perfect will...this has been a nightmare, hopefully this helps someone.

 

Good tip mate

 

how could it go in too far if when you snug up the axle nut on the spindle it should pull it to where it needs to be? I could see initially lining it up to be careful because you can press in the axle seal accidentally in too far but the axle itself should only line up one way after its torqued down.

 

These are internet mechanics man-they can perform the unthinkable at times..

 

False tips. I just re installed front and rear axles after doing diff and tcase.

 

How did you end up paying $1200 in labor to install new front axles? Seems awfully high unless it was labor for fronts and rears maybe. That means that at about $100 shop labor rate an hour they charged you 12 hours, 6 hours per axle?!!! Something doesn't seem right.

 

Should have known if I posted something a bunch of people would troll it lol. If you don't seat the seal a bit back from flush with the end of the axle it just doesn't seat right and I had take the axle off, put new a new seal on about 4 times to get this right and unfortunately i don't have a place to work on the car so I had to pay someone...lesson learned these axles are a horrible design

 

It just sounds like you have an incompetent mechanic doing the work on your Evo to me? I've pulled and reinstalled axels numerous times on these cars and have never once had an issue with anything related to them from "putting them too far in" as you say. Sorry to hear about your terrible experience though. Maybe find an Evo specific shop in your area and they would be able to do a better job at it?

 

Im not trolling, but it just seemed rather excessive about the labor fees. Now I understand, but that still sucks.

The axle seal only gets pressed in so far, even though you can actually press it in pretty deep, best bet is to look at how the original one was seated to compare if you aren't familiar. You can press them in too far and Im sure they will leak. Seals in general can be a pain to get right. Another issue is that hopefully you were getting the correct replacement seals.

 

Yea when my dealer did my axle seal under warranty they had to have a high lever tech redo it because the first one was incompetent and didn't do it right, causing a leak as soon as I left the dealership.

 

Should we let everyone in on the little secret that these types of axle seals are basically standard accross the industry? (not saying they are all the same, but extremely common in axle design lol)... design meaning the seal, and the seat.

 

yup, more than likely it was pressed in too far and caused a leak. Im not sure why mitsu couldnt just design it like the rear main seal where it bottoms out on a lip.