Diff breathers

[Trevdeb]

Hi swaggers

We are off to the cape in 2 weeks leaving Canberra 12/6, with my ranger and new RTT we get out to the brindabellas as much as we can but river crossings are not like up north, Are Diff Breathers a good idea ?

Trev & Deb

[Supersi]

Hi Trevor and Deb, have a look at your diffs, I think the Rangers have breathers on them already that "surface" in the engine bay.  Maybe it's a model dependent item though, they are on my Wildtrak.

[swanny]

A few things will help you decide mate, do you know were your Diff/Gear box/Transfer case breathers run to with in your engine bay ?

The other thing to ask yourself is, are you going to ford thru water that is deep enough to submerge the breathers in there current location ??, if the answer is yes then the breathers will need to be fitted and situated at such a height to be effective.

I have recently done this to my Datsun, in stock form, they are situated at the top of the inner guard, I have a 3 inch lift, and decided to route them to a bracket off my Aux batt in the hope that this will be high enough, which it should be, if it isn't then the last thing I will be worried about is water getting into my breathers.....rather making sure I have some soap for a wash id say

Pretty easy job to do also, ARB or any of the 4wd outlets do kits for such a job, or if your handy you can come up with your own bits and pieces and throw it together for next to nothing.

Hope this helps.

Swanny

[Dexter_1]

Hi Trevdeb.
I have a new PX Ranger and it already has the dif breathers in place which is one of the reasons its rated for a 800mm water crossing by Ford. Donot know the status of previous models.
The following youtube video will provide you with the details from Ford South Africa.

Ford Ranger River Crossing

All the best.....Peter

[rodw]

If you do add them make sure you run them up to the front and mount as high as possible as you are most likely to get stuck exiting the far bank with your rear under water and you don't want the breathers to become submerged.

Also be careful even if the breathers are extended from the factory. On my Hilux when I fitted my breathers, I head a hiss of air entering the diff as I removed the rear breather (eg. it acts as a one way outlet valve not as a breather). This lead me to conclude that a vacuum builds up in the diff which when cold and thus it is more likely to suck water in past the axle seals. If the factory has simply extended the standard type of diff breather, then you might still get water ingress via the axle seals due to a vacuum in a submerged (eg. cold) diff.

It is a cheap and easy modification. Even the Japanese diffs typically use an imperial NPT thread so you can fit a brass air hose tail to the diff to attach a hose and add a small fuel filter at the other end. One of the simplest and cheapest mods you can do.

[Blackheart]

Think you will find diff breathers already on the Ranger. My BT-50 has them from the factory which was a pleasant surprise