Water in rear end

[chevy3100]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I have a stock 2001 Chevy S-10 crew cab and have been having problems with moisture/water in the rear end. I've changed out the fluid 4 times now over the course of several years. I did relocat the vent to a better location. My mechanic who is a GM mechanic by day can't figure it out. This time my wheel bearings and seals are bad. Once my new mechanic drained the gear oil which was a frothy gray color he did some investigating which ended up with bad news. My axle assembly needs replacing due to all the problems we found. Those include groove on axles where bearings rested, limited slip warn, something with the spider gears and bad pinion bearings/seal and something else that was metal on metal that wasn't good. He said it would be cheaper finding a new assembly than all the parts individually. My mechanic said he found a replacement axle and hope it is the correct one. My question is what would cause the water/moisture in the axle? the truck is mostly drivin on the street. It does rain a lot here in Oregon but I don't drive through deep puddles or anything. I'm also in the process of replacing the front wheel bearing again. my last set only lasted two years. Any thoughts?

Steve A.

[HenryJ]

If you repace the whole axle assembly, try hard to find a ZR2 axle, if you have the 3.73 gear set. That is a huge improvement.
Water would be coming from the axle vent tube and is very difficult to remove. Be sure to get it far away from the bed gap.

[LoneWolf04]

Be interested in seeing pics of these worn parts. how many miles on the truck?

[booth9c1ss]

The full-size trucks run the vent tube up yo behind the fuel filler door (maybe zip-tied to vent tube where you can't see it). On a Z71, that's 40+ inches off the ground and well protected.