Driveshaft Seal Check

[advacomp]

2020 Explorer going in tomorrow for the infamous CV/FADA seal leak. While I was grabbing pictures of that I took some of the driveshaft seals too. Can anyone here confirm if these look normal?

 

[hbalek]

2020 Explorer going in tomorrow for the infamous CV/FADA seal leak. While I was grabbing pictures of that I took some of the driveshaft seals too. Can anyone here confirm if these look normal?

I just had this done and so far so good. I've had the car back 2 days now. Fingers crossed! I'm grateful to my service advisor for giving me a free rental car and doing the repairs under powertrain warranty, which only has 8 months/10K miles left on it! I still have about 2.5 years left on the Ford Protect PremiumCare and have not had a single claim yet in over a year. He told me if I didn't have PremiumCare the rental would not have been offered. Both CV's were replaced last year due to leaking oil also under powertrain.

 

[Cdubya]

Advacomp, if you just have a FADA leak and no codes, they will remove your FADA and replace the faulty O-ring most likely. I would strongly urge you to discuss replacing the FADA entirely for the new intermediate shafts that have been going in since 2022. Most recently 2023+ have been getting the latest version of the intermediate shaft which also will require a new driver's half shaft. Hbalek kindly posted the part# for 2020-2021 to get this fix but is also in the TSB 23-2174. It is almost a travesty to do all that labor to replace an O-ring when the FADA is likely to fail at some point--not if but when. Even if you have to pay for parts, if the dealer covers the labor under warranty, it'll be worth it.

 

[CoHPhasor]

Advacomp, if you just have a FADA leak and no codes, they will remove your FADA and replace the faulty O-ring most likely. I would strongly urge you to discuss replacing the FADA entirely for the new intermediate shafts that have been going in since 2022. Most recently 2023+ have been getting the latest version of the intermediate shaft which also will require a new driver's half shaft. Hbalek kindly posted the part# for 2020-2021 to get this fix but is also in the TSB 23-2174. It is almost a travesty to do all that labor to replace an O-ring when the FADA is likely to fail at some point--not if but when. Even if you have to pay for parts, if the dealer covers the labor under warranty, it'll be worth it.

Thanks for that!
I didn't know this was a thing, and I'm a late March of 21 build date.

 

[Cdubya]

Thanks for that!
I didn't know this was a thing, and I'm a late March of 21 build date.

Being a MY2022, you *may* have v.1 of the intermediate shaft. it looks like the FADA but is missing the harness port. Only way to tell is to peek at the FADA connected to the LH front axle and see if it has a connector.

There are a lot of "things" with MY2020-2021. Being that you are an early 2021 build date, yours might have the AWD module grounding flaw (see link). Most other component issues were revised before MY2022's hit: downpipes, front axles, flex section midpipes, etc.
https://www.tsbsearch.com/Ford/23-2061