ARB leaks in a way that is confusing

ScottB

ScottB

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 6, 2017
Messages
158
Location
Milton, FL, United States
I have read many topics and posts about ARB lockers leaking, but my issues are confusing at best. I had a reputable shop install ARB lockers in both my front Dana 30 and my rear Super Dana 35 in April of 2018. I also regeared to 4.88 at the same time. Almost immediately, both front and rear lockers leaked. The leak did NOT come from the solenoid. They leaked air from the vent hoses on each axle.

I have an SPOD with an air pressure gauge so I can see the actual pressure and how fast the air is leaking.

Here is the weird thing. It doesn't happen all of the time. Sometimes not at all, sometimes immediately when the locker is engaged, sometimes only the front, sometimes only the rear, sometimes both, sometimes the leak will be fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes they will start leaking then stop, sometimes there will be no leak, then they will start leaking.

I contacted ARB last year and they send complete rebuild kits for both the front and rear and no cost. I did have to pay for the labor for the rebuild.

Here it is a year and a half and 8,000 miles later and the same problems as listed above are occurring again. The problems didn't just all of a sudden restart, it was gradual and now it happens every time i engage the lockers. It might engage immediately with no leak whatsoever or maybe not.

The lockers are defininately engaging when I flip the switch to engage them.

The confusing part for me is the randomness. It seems to me that if there is leak, it would always leak and not "repair itself."
I find it difficult to believe that I have received 4 bad air bladders.

Any thoughts?
 
ScottB said:
I have read many topics and posts about ARB lockers leaking, but my issues are confusing at best. I had a reputable shop install ARB lockers in both my front Dana 30 and my rear Super Dana 35 in April of 2018. I also regeared to 4.88 at the same time. Almost immediately, both front and rear lockers leaked. The leak did NOT come from the solenoid. They leaked air from the vent hoses on each axle.

I have an SPOD with an air pressure gauge so I can see the actual pressure and how fast the air is leaking.

Here is the weird thing. It doesn't happen all of the time. Sometimes not at all, sometimes immediately when the locker is engaged, sometimes only the front, sometimes only the rear, sometimes both, sometimes the leak will be fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes they will start leaking then stop, sometimes there will be no leak, then they will start leaking.

I contacted ARB last year and they send complete rebuild kits for both the front and rear and no cost. I did have to pay for the labor for the rebuild.

Here it is a year and a half and 8,000 miles later and the same problems as listed above are occurring again. The problems didn't just all of a sudden restart, it was gradual and now it happens every time i engage the lockers. It might engage immediately with no leak whatsoever or maybe not.

The lockers are defininately engaging when I flip the switch to engage them.

The confusing part for me is the randomness. It seems to me that if there is leak, it would always leak and not "repair itself."
I find it difficult to believe that I have received 4 bad air bladders.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
If that were happening to me, I would highly suspect that the diffs are not set up with enough preload.
 
I don't know if this helps, but today I wanted to make 100% sure that an air line didn't have a hole in it anywhere. There were no holes. I did not drive the Jeep at all and now the front locker holds air fine. The rear locker leaks air, but not as much. A little soapy water on the rear axle breather tube, indicates that the air is definitely coming from inside the axle. I then looked at the top of the rear diff case where the air fitting is and noticed that axle grease is coming from the air orifice. Not where it is threaded into the axle, but where the air tube enters the orifice.

There is no leakage of grease on the front diff.

Why is axle grease being pumped out of the diff?

On a side note, I spoke with the original install shop today and was told that all ARB lockers leak and the compressor cycles. I said not every 3 seconds. His reply was that everything is installed correctly and it is an ARB issue. He went on to say that he will completely disassemble the axles and IF anything is wrong, he will correct the error at no costs. If there was no install error, then I would have to pay the labor AGAIN.
 
It seems to me like either something was installed incorrectly, or you have a defective part.
 
ScottB said:
I don't know if this helps, but today I wanted to make 100% sure that an air line didn't have a hole in it anywhere. There were no holes. I did not drive the Jeep at all and now the front locker holds air fine. The rear locker leaks air, but not as much. A little soapy water on the rear axle breather tube, indicates that the air is definitely coming from inside the axle. I then looked at the top of the rear diff case where the air fitting is and noticed that axle grease is coming from the air orifice. Not where it is threaded into the axle, but where the air tube enters the orifice.

There is no leakage of grease on the front diff.

Why is axle grease being pumped out of the diff?

On a side note, I spoke with the original install shop today and was told that all ARB lockers leak and the compressor cycles. I said not every 3 seconds. His reply was that everything is installed correctly and it is an ARB issue. He went on to say that he will completely disassemble the axles and IF anything is wrong, he will correct the error at no costs. If there was no install error, then I would have to pay the labor AGAIN.
Click to expand...
Any shop that tells you that all ARB lockers leak is full of shit.
 
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Chris said:
It seems to me like either something was installed incorrectly, or you have a defective part.
Click to expand...

This is has already been addressed by the same shop once before, right at a year ago. ARB sent all new rebuild kits for both lockers. Problem has come back again. I find it very difficult to believe that I received 4 lockers that were all defective.
 
ScottB said:
This is has already been addressed by the same shop once before, right at a year ago. ARB sent all new rebuild kits for both lockers. Problem has come back again. I find it very difficult to believe that I received 4 lockers that were all defective.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize that.

It sounds to me then like the installer most certainly does not know what they are doing. Because you're right, 4 defective lockers... no chance.
 
Chris said:
I didn't realize that.

It sounds to me then like the installer most certainly does not know what they are doing. Because you're right, 4 defective lockers... no chance.
Click to expand...

This installer comes highly recommended by most every one in the general area; at least in the realm of regear and the such. Maybe he cannot install ARB as well as he can regear. I now need to find someone in the Pensacola area, or nearby, to fix this problem.
 
ScottB said:
This installer comes highly recommended by most every one in the general area; at least in the realm of regear and the such. Maybe he cannot install ARB as well as he can regear. I now need to find someone in the Pensacola area, or nearby, to fix this problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's really odd. It wouldn't hurt to find another shop and at least get their opinion before they take it apart. Maybe they can see something just by easily removing the diff covers.
 
mrblaine said:
Any shop that tells you that all ARB lockers leak is full of shit.
Click to expand...
I agree I had F & R ARB's in my 95 YJ and neither of them leak. The only leak I have ever had was when I cut one of the lines on the trail no fault of the ARB more like driver error :)
 
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OK........ this gets more strange. I spoke to the shop owner again and he agrees that something is wrong. Last night I checked the lockers again. The front one worked fine and held air for over 30 minutes. The rear, not so much. It held air for less than 3 seconds, before the compressor cycled. This continued with no change for about a minute. This morning I was taking the Jeep to the shop. I checked the lockers and again, same as last night.

Get this. I drove 30 miles to the shop. I attempted to show the shop the owner what is going on.....and both lockers held air for over 15 minutes. I drove around the block and the same thing.....both held air.

6 hours later, I leave work for lunch.... you guessed it, they dont hold air.

How is it possible that when the diff heats up, the lockers function fine?

Or is it that the Jeep has stopped perfect and the lockers can then function?

It is now hard to convince the shop owner that something is wrong.
 
Update from ARB.

I contacted ARB explained the entire history. I went on to say that I did not think that this was a product problem, but instead an install issue. The tech rep disagreed and said that it is more than likely an ARB product failure. He went on to say that the bonded seal has been a problem for well over a year and I was probably given the bad seal again as a replacement, even though new the new seals were available. ARB is sending me the correct seals and said that the new bonded seals are brown and the bad seals are black.

I asked if ARB could help on the labor costs because both axles have to be disassembled. The response, when you get a receipt for the labor, send it to ARB and we will take care of you in ARB products.

We will see how this goes.
 
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