My 1998 Land Rover Discovery TD5 started to leak oil from one of the front drive shaft seals.  I purchased a new seal and set about dismantling the hub.  I had previously changed a seal on my other Discovery while replacing the front ball joints, so was familiar with the procedure.

The hub and driveshaft was removed as a complete unit, so there was no need to undo the hub nut.

The caliper and carrier were removed.  Followed by the brake disk.

The four bolts that hold the hub onto the carrier were removed from the rear of the carrier.  The hub was then pulled forward.  The ABS sensor had previously been disconnected and made free to thread thought the carrier.

The hub and driveshaft was carefully removed from the front axle.

The faulty oil seal can be seen in the end of the axle.  This was carefully prized out.

The new oil seal was pressed in

The old splash panel needed replacing, so I purchased a new one.

I wire brushed most of the metalwork to remove the rust and give it a couple of coats of paint.

Unfortunately soon after driving the vehicle again, the same seal began leaking.  Presuming that I must have damaged the seal, I replaced the seal again with another new one.  However this one also started to leak.  I found that other people had similar regular failures which had been fixed by machining the metal flange that the seal ran on.  I one again disassembled the drive shaft.

I also compared the different seals that I had available.  This image shows that there were differences in thickness.  I wondered whether the seal was getting squashed between the flange and the axle.

I machined the faces of the flange and also pressed it slightly further down the shaft away from the end of the axle.  Once again, following reassembly, the new seal started to leak.  It was only after trying all these possibilities, that further investigation found that there was a very slight amount of play in one of the ball joints.  This movement must have been causing the seal to get damaged.

I used my home made press as I had previously done when replacing the ball joints on my 1998 Discovery TD5.

This time the job was successful.  No more leaking from the hub seal.  I learned a lesson in making sure I check all the components surrounding the problem from now on.