Okay, this cherokee currently is being driven a couple times a week and generally not too far, maybe 20 miles a week. Power steering was seeming to be a little loud, so I assumed it has a leak and I figured I would add some fluid and see if I could tell where the leak was.

So, didn't take much to see that one of the PS lines was very wet with fluid, so I assumed that was my problem. I filled up the reservoir that was low but that's when I noticed this.

The whole back of the engine bay and the hood is coated with oil and it seems to originate above the front axle breather. Seems odd that much oil would be coming out of the breather. I know this was an issue on the JK's if you over filled the front diff, they would heat up and force fluid out the breather.
Then peering down into the engine bay I noticed something else.

The breather was down touching the front driveshaft and is completely worn through, possibly melted also, its hard to tell what exactly happened. I don't know when this all occured but I was in the engine bay just a few weeks ago and didn't notice any of this.

Any thoughts on all the oil everywhere? Not sure what happened to cause that? I need to clean it all up, replace and route the breather better, and get a new PS line set. Still just a little curious why all the oil spewed out everywhere.

 

make sure its diff oil, not PS fluid

Diff oil has a very characteristic smell

the breather needs to be carefully cable tied up out of the way, no idea why it would spew out, as its not under pressure