Hello everyone.

I have noticed on the rear right side that there seem to be oil leaking from the center of the hub, covering the rim in oil and dirt. It looks like there is a washer in the center of the hub held on by a small bolt.

I just wanted to ask. Is this oil from the differential running through the whole axle? And the follow up question is ofcourse does anybody know how these bits are sealed and if I can get these seals somewhere. I don't want to run my 4x4 system dry.

Thanks.

Hello,
your issue will be the oil seals at the end of the axle. sadly it will have failed.

to replace this seal it will require the wheel bearing being removed. as soon as it is out of the way the old seal will pull out and a new one pushed in.

see here for info on the oil seal you require:

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda-cla...axle-differential-oil-seal-sizes-detials.html

Thank you for the reply. I have absolutely no idea where to turn to to get something like that here in sweden. Any advice?

Ok never mind, I just found it on autodoc.

Does anyone have any advice on how to remove the rear wheel bearing bolts on the panda 4x4. I mean these bolts have been on there for 32 years and I can't even get a spanner properly around them because the weld seam connecting the axle tube to the square part is in the way.
I see rounded bolts, visegrips and blazing fury in my near future...

Ok so I managed to get the bolts off, one broke off so I had to steal one from my other 4x4 panda which is not in use.
Now that everything has been taken apart and I have started to reasemble the whole thing, I noticed something that worries me.

The washer and bolt in the centre of the hub has play in it, so it can be pulled out and pushed back in a few mm. So I guess it's the axle itself that has play in it. Anybody know why it might be doing that?

its pretty normal. when i did some work in the differential you can pull these half shafts out. they only push in and held roughly in place with that 10mm bolt. both of my panda 4x4s have play in the bolt. only a few mm but its noticeable if you pull and push on the bolt head with a pair of pliers.

Oh I see, guess I've been fortunate until now to not have this problen before. Do you know what causes it? When I pushed the new oil seal into the axle today it slid in no problem, but visually it didn't seem to "grip" very tightly around the axle. It is identical to the old one so it should be fine, but I don't want to put everything back together and refil the diff with oil just to discover it's still leaking because of something else.

the ones i replaced just kinda slid in to.. i had to make sure they were level but they didnt require excessive force to push them back in.
so long as they are not slack i dont think they will cause any issues.

if you feel unsure, take the seal back out, clean up the surfaces with some meths on a cloth and use some gasket seal around the outer edge of the oil seal. that should stop anything passing. though its not necessary, its something i do with most oil seals i install.

The play in the half shaft is normal, if you look at how the washer is stepped you can see it will not hold it tight. The shaft is floating and the washer and bolt prevents the shaft from moving into the diff too far.

As long as the seal is correct and the surface on the shaft is not scored or corroded then it should be fine.

Thanks for the replies. Today when I went to do the same procedure on the left side (because I decided to replace the wheel bearings while I hade the whole thing apart anyway) I discovered why I don't have any play in the axle on that side, the axle splines are completely rusted stuck in the wheel bearing. I couldn't get it out so in the end I didn't bother replacing the bearing since there's really nothing wrong with it.