Rear diff fluid at 1k

I can't lie. I'm going to subscribe to any thread that starts out with photos of black shit on fingers followed by "look how dirty it was".

 

My recently sold '03 Tundra with 285k miles never had rear end oil changed; only trans. New owner changed R/E and no metal, full and barely dark. Thats Toyota!

 

I wouldn't do it again, but first truck was a 1991 F150 straight six with the Mazda 5 speed. I trading it in, in running condition with nearly 400K on the clock and the original diff fluid in the pumpkin.

 

The diff is one of the most mechanically strongest parts on the truck and will most often outlast the life of it. You change your diff oil due to oil breakdown, not because of sludge or metal pieces. It’s not a delegate flower. Toyota recommends earlier oil changes because it uses a light oil that easily breaks down.

 

Great catch. Now instead of my rear diff lasting 1,500,000 miles, I can get it to 1,500,008 miles. I might be able to squeeze 6 more miles if I start changing it weekly.

 

I change all fluids every 7 days

 

I set up one of those 1880s locomotive drip oiler systems on my rear diff. Always clean.

 

After reading this thread i went straight to the dealer and had my diff fluid changed lol only 7k miles on my truck but ill gladly pay $94 for peace of mind!!

 

This is normal and will continue to be normal but go ahead and flush money away with a diff service. I'd wait at least 50k.

 

$100 bucks is nothing compared to the 30k+ most of us have spent. I'll gladly pay to sleep better at night.

 

I will just never understand this.. if a manual tells you to change something out at the engineers recommended time and you're so paranoid that you change it out at such low mileage then why even buy a new vehicle? You buy a new car/truck because you think it's reliable but then negate every factory recommended change out of fluids and services.

 

Lol the diff is the most durable moving part of the truck. If you keep the water out of it it will go many hundreds of thousands of miles. It's very common for a diff to go 200k with original fluid. Don't believe all the myths and rumors.

 

If you use the correct fluids, then there's not much to lose other than a little money. I agree, probably a waste tho.
If I would have known the stock gear oil is synthetic, I probably wouldn't have done mine at 5K.
We all waste money on different things.
Restaurant bill $50, cook at home $10...
Price of gear oil $15/qt, not that big of deal...

 

It's not about wasting oil or money to me, it's these people are doing this because they heard it's needed. Rumors and myths that refuse to die.

 

You try to teach someone to read and all they wanna do is eat the paper.

Sometimes it's better to walk away and let them do their thing.

 

It's no different anytime you get something rebuilt especially with the gears any shop will tell you after the first five hundred to a thousand miles you really want to change the initial fill because there is a coating that wears off that you want to get out of there as well as any other elevated levels of breakin metals.

Once you do that then I would say follow what the book calls for. The reason they don't recommend you do it early is for two things most people are not going to spend the money to have it done and secondly they're trying to sell a vehicle thats low maintenance to all the lazy people out there. All of the Toyotas come with the free maintenance for 2 years they don't feel like changing anything out that they don't really have to. Personally I don't want some jughead out of high school working on my stuff anyway. They don't want to change the engine oil to 10,000 miles anyway which is just ludicrous. Unless you're changing the fluids every thousand miles they're very cheap compared to component failure.

 

If you use 4wd often then change the fluid sooner. Most people on here just use their trucks as a DD and rarely see 4wd much so the 30K is more than fine. And changing other fluids early doesn't help that much unless you are running hard all the time, racing, wheeling, etc. Shit I did the diff at 10k on my jeep and oil at 5k and wheeled it all the time and never had an issue with both lockers or gears. That was wheeling trips locked in 4 low for hours, barely anyone on here does that in a taco. So toyos recommendations are more than adequate. Small buildup and a little shavings is normal after 1st/2nd change.

 

It would be interesting to know how many vehicles (not just trucks) have never had any differential fluid changes, and never had any issues. Not that I'm an advocate of that method, but most folks never have it done.

If you can find out, please break them into categories of 100k, 150k, 200k, etc.

Suspect the list will be pretty long.

 

Changed my 2nd gen fluid at 30k. Look just the same as the pix. No metal in it. Just a small bit of NORMAL sludge on the magnet. Even if I had seen that sheen of metal you sometimes see when servicing diffs...that's rarely anything to worry about. I'll do it again at 60k.

You can change the fluid, drive it around for 500 miles, empty it out and it will look dirty again. It's pretty dark before it ever goes in....right out of the bottle

I suppose changing it early doesn't hurt anything and it might make the owner feel better. But it's a waste of time really.

You know how many Tacos are running around that have never serviced the diff?

Too many to count

 

You could have bought tools and supplies and DIY for under $30.

Or I would have given you peace of mind for $50.