Yellow Fluid Leak Rear Passenger Side

I noticed afternthe last snow fall a yellow fluid leak a few inches forward and left of my Left Passenger Tire. I searched and found no visible stains underneath. Two days later I rotated my tires in the hangar at work and noticed a yellow leak on the floor after I pulled the truck outside. I cannot 100% confirm that this one came from my truck as the entire floor has oil and fluids from the aircraft. I spent 30 minutes looking at the suspected area with a flashlight and UV light and again no visible leaks or stains underneath. I'm posting a photo of the location in reference to the Rear Passenger Tire. I doubt it is the rear diff relief valve due to the location. I read a post about a chemical reaction that stains snow yellow which makes no sense at all. Any suggestions or help is appreciated. Thank you

 

Brake Fluid or Gear Oil would be my guess.

 

Going out on a limb here, but the only thing I can think of in that area is a bad shock but I have no idea what color shock fluid would be. If it's diff fluid you'd be able to smell it as nothing smells like that shit.

 

That may make sense, the night before the snow storm I strapped down 2 milk crates of 200 lbs of sand by the tail gate and drove home. I'll investigate that route. Thank you.

 

Do you have a dog?

 

It's from your stainless steel exhaust system.

 

It actually looks yellow/green on my PC. I would suspect an antifreeze leak from a hose on that side.

 

vtdog, it is in the rear below the muffler next to the tire. I am down to the exahust, shock oil, rear differential oil, or brake fluid. reg boulette I am sort of leaning towards the stainless but can't find too much if an explanation out there.

 

I will throw my 2 cents in, it doesn't appear to repeal the snow but to invade or travel thru it so you can eliminate any oils, greases, etc. that would not mix or combine into the snow, with that being said it leaves only a water soluble source for introduction. I would look at heater hoses, coolant containers ( radiator) etc. . Remember it make leak somewhere else to where the evidence appears!
Good luck and let us know what you find!

 

Reaction with the metal and salt/chloride used on winter roads. There are varying degrees of stainless steel used - it does not mean that they don't corrode in some small way. Scared me as well first time it happened, but if you keep an eye on the drips, you will see it follows the exhaust system on the passenger side.

 

It look likes the OP works out at Floyd Bennett Field. Certainly one of the mechanics on the Bells can give you a hand

 

Thanks, I had 3 of them scratching their heads with no success. I'm going with the stainless theory.

 

neighborhood cat

 

Don't know what it is, but I know you're not supposed to eat yellow snow...

 

Is that just water coming from the weep hole in the muffler?

 

I really don't want to beat this to death, but as I have some knowledge in the area I would like to point out that, in general, corrosion of the exhaust system stainless steel would be reddish/brown in color.
However, Chromium Chloride could be produced as a reaction from road salt and stainless steel and would be expected to be green in color, but as it becomes diluted could certainly show as yellow/green. I don't know what type of stainless steel is used in the Tacoma exhaust system, but a road salt reaction is "possible". The caveat to this would be that if a reaction to road salt (sodium chloriide) happened it was more than likely due to an incorrect mixture of chromium in the stainless steel mix. That being said, I would expect then that there would be a large number of trucks showing this reaction as the incorrect chromium mix would be made in a large batch process and impact many vehicles.
I don't know if this helps, but it does provide a possible explanation, but antifreeze leak of some type would still be my first choice.

 

Antifreeze in the Tacoma is Red, Brake fluid is yellow. Definitely can't be tge antifreeze die to the color and being in the rear of the truck. I made a grease pencil mark on the brake fluid reservoir to see if there is a drop. For now, I'm accepting the road salt on the stainless as I did drive home prior to the storm and the DOT sprayed the roads with liquid anti-ice sodium or chromium chloride.

 

that looks like brake fluid. had the same sort of random leak in the rear on a 04 chevy 2500 i had years ago, those brake lines were notorious for leaking/rusting

 

I know this is a older post but I just wanted to let you know I had the same issue and it’s dripping from the weep hole in my muffler. It’s also only during snow fall so I agree with a couple comments with the stainless steel reaction to the salt mix they spread

 

My neighbour texted me this morning letting me know he saw a bunch of bright yellow liquid in the snow on the driveway after I left...it's been snowy and cold for a while and plenty of road crews have been lacing the highways with de-icer and liquid solutions so this theory might apply to what he found. I asked him where in relation to my truck, he said back right which is exactly where the exhaust and muffler run through. I'll be checking it out later but really glad I found this forum.