Diff breathers are essential insurance for your 4WD vehicle if you drive through water.

This post will cover a few critical aspects of diff breathers and an overview of their functionalities with a special mention of the most common diff breather kit brands on the market.

To begin with, everyone's 4wd has differentials, gearboxes and transfer boxes all have breathers on from the factory. The diff, gearbox and transfer need to vent off some of the excess heat generated within, ensuring that the seals and gears stay in good operating order.

The thing is, with a lot of 4wds, these vents are in pretty good locations, but with some, well... not so good at all.

In fact, some of them are actually relatively low in the vehicle.

And if you've got to do a water crossing, go through any water puddle or whatever it may be, it can have a dramatic effect. Furthermore, the rapid cooling of the diff causes the air inside the diff to condense and suck outside air in to fill the void.

You can imagine the heat that gets generated within the differentials of the vehicle, and then if you're going through a water crossing with that complete heat, well what can happen is that it can actually suck the water back into the differential and cause a lot of damage to the diff itself so by installing diff breathers and we've got a wide range here at All Four x 4 Spares, you can make sure that your vehicle is going to be well protected.

Because we can guarantee you, there's a lot of people that will do even the smallest water crossing, and it might be a crossing that they haven't actually even intended on doing and it's caused damage by sucking water into the diffs and the transfer case. So something to consider towards reducing that risk by installing diff breathers to your 4x4 vehicle.

Now you're not going to know that water is in there, and after a thousand Kms or so of driving with water in the diff, it can cause rust, and all sorts of premature failure, so an inexpensive diff breather kit will make a big difference to the car.

Please check the video below from Alan Johnson of Piranha Offroad to learn more about the basics of these inexpensive but useful products. They offer incredible protection for less than you think.

Diff breather kits also help by reducing the chance of the breather blocking (mud and dirt etc), if a breather was to block it can blow out oil seals.

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How to install a diff breather?

Please check this video to learn more about installing a Diff Breather Kit to your 4wd

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All Four x 4 Spares' Diff breather kits range:

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Blackhawk Diff Breather Kit / Driveline Breather Kit

• Suitable for Toyota, Nissan, Holden and Mitsubishi. Shop Here
• Suitable for Ranger, Courier, Mazda BT. Shop Here

As discussed earlier, when the vehicle is running at normal operating temperatures, and driveline components come into contact with mud or water, the temperature change creates a vacuum inside your hot diffs, gearbox or transfer case.

This pressure shift encourages dirt, water and debris to be 'sucked' into the driveline components through the factory breathers or seals.

Blackhawk Diff Breather Kits replace the factory breathers and allow the driveline components to be vented in one central location, usually high above the potential water/mud level.

Thus enabling the components to breathe freely and eliminating the potential for oil contamination which can lead to damaged drivetrain components.

The Blackhawk Driveline breather kit acts as a 'snorkel' for the vehicle's driveline and is more than just a "diff breather".

The Blackhawk Driveline Breather Kit is installed in its complete four-port configuration and provides breathability and protection to the front and rear differentials, transmission and transfer case.

Features:

• Suits for two-port or four-port installation.
• Quality 8mm breather hose in spring style design flexible polyurethane for improved install, operation (suits long travel) and hose longevity.
• High-quality stainless steel fittings.
• Billet machined T6061 aluminium manifold.
• Compact design.
• Rear-mounted washable filters sit out of sight and away from the elements.- Isolated ports are protected from contamination in the event of mechanical failure or flow back.
• Comprehensive fitting kit.
• Can be plumbed into the vehicles airbox to maximise the potential of uninterrupted air supply if the vehicle happens to be submerged underwater temporarily.

Learn more here about Blackhawk 4x4 Diff Breather Kits

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Ironman 4x4 Diff Breather Kit Twin Filtered

Suitable for diff housings, transfer cases, gearboxes and winch motors.

Specifically designed for use on vehicles that work in off-road and harsh conditions from sub-zero to humid tropics. The Ironman 4×4 twin breather kit is used to raise the height of your vehicles driveline components vents to help prevent water ingress by providing raised filtered ventilation.

The twin manifold allows for multiple components to be connected at one time or double the kit up for extra components. The kit is a fully machined aluminium manifold with brass filters with high-quality oil resistant reinforced hose.

Kit contains:

• 1x Twin breather manifold with brass breathers and hose barbs
• 2x Brass barbs
• 1x 10m Oil resistant hose
• 4x Stainless steel hose clamps
• 2x Self drilling screws
• Cable ties

Learn more here about Ironman 4x4 Diff Breather Kits

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Piranha Diff Breather Kit

It includes:

• 7m of Hose
• 2 x Filters
• 2 x Brass Fittings
• Hose Clamps
• Mounting Bracket
• Cable Ties
• Installation Guide

Learn more here about Piranha Offroad Diff Breather Kits

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Conclusion

Do you have any questions about Diff Breather Kits? Post them in the comments!