Now I am concerned about the issue where at the same time I had to have the right rear wheel bearing replaced. I believe it is leaking oil, grease or whatever is back there. The inside of the right rear wheel has a film of nasty looking oil stuff all over the inside of it. I asked them at toyota to check. Advisor said that tech looked and saw no signs of leaks. Well, this morn while under there, I wiped it off best I could with paper towels, so now I'll look again in a day or 2 to see if it's oily again.
So now you have a new problem that you should take back to Toyota to have them fix. The rear axle seals are leaking. That's the rear diff's gear lube that's leaking onto the wheels. (Mine have leaked and have had to be replaced every 50K miles, which is extremely annoying). It slimes the drum brakes if you don't get it fixed immediately, so then the brake shoes need to be replaced. With no other vehicles around, when you ease on your emergency brake while moving, does it slow the vehicle at all? If it doesn't really do anything, that's a good hint that the brake shoes are likely soaked with gear lube. But on the other hand, if only one side's brake shoes are soaked with gear lube, you might still have brakes from the other rear wheel, so that isn't a sure test. One possible cause of a leaky rear axle seal is related to replacing the rear wheel bearings. If they don't press the bearings on correctly in just the right position, the rear axle seal doesn't contact in the right location, so it can leak. Another possibility is if your axle tube is bent from the accident, the rear axle seals will probably leak.
Now guys, I hate to ask again but if you read back to the first of this and see where I am asking if you think the diff. could have been damaged due to the wreck, please think about it again since we know for sure it was the rear diff. Although my truck was hit on the left side, and it was hit hard, could it have bent or un-aligned something that caused the diff problem to finally come to a head.
Someone earlier in this thread said they didn't think the rear diff could be damaged from the accident where you got hit on the left side. I think it IS possible that the rear diff got damaged, although it's not one of the first places I'd look for damage when you're hit on the side. You had mentioned something about one of the tires was pushed back after the accident, so it could be rationalized that whatever tire was hit had to suddenly stop rotating, so that would transfer huge forces through the rear diff and maybe damage something. If the axle tube was bent, it could cause further problems, such as rear diff problems and bearings failing and rear axle seals leaking.
Maybe you should try to find out if your rear axle tube is bent from the accident. It's awefully hard to bend the axle tubes unless it was caused by the accident. (Not to mention the repair costs will go up further, but at least you could get insurance to pay for the rear bearings, rear axle seal leak, and rear diff problems).
