Front diff drain plug seized up and striped, any advise?

Was doing some maintenance on the truck today. Decided to do the front & rear diff fluids. The dealership did the front, TC, & rear fluids @ 45k miles. Haven't touched the fluids since and I am at 75k miles currently. Rear went fine, front not so much. Got the front fill plug loose, then the drain plug is stuck on there. Sprayed it some some PB blaster and waited an hour, tried it again and really striped it. Decided that was enough for the night, sprayed some PB blaster to sit overnight and was able to hammer the Allen socket in. Guessing I have 1 more shot at this before the plug is done. I don't have access to heating it with a torch. If all else fails was going to try the chisel method if it was 100% striped. Any advise outside of taking it to the dealer/shop?

 

Make sure you’re using the proper size allen key and not letting it slip out at an angle while trying to loosen the plug. The correct size should not be able to strip the plug.

 

Buy a cheap 10mm hex socket and have a shop weld it onto the plug. Will come out easily. Obviously will need a new drain plug but you will get it off.

 

Used a 10mm hex. Made sure it was all the way in also. Had the same problem with my wife's Rav4 a few months back, but that plug was in bad shape. I want to avoid drilling it. I have a new drain plug, went to the dealer before they closed today (was shocked at the $15 price tag on it).

 

Happened on my first gen, stripped it. Same hex style plug I imagine. I notched it with a Dremel and was able to then fit a chisel in the slot and hammer it loose easily. Worth a shot

 

Easy to weld a nut

 

Switch to the Lexus plug when you get it out. Maybe hit it with a torch?

 

Thanks for the Lexus part numbers

 

A chisel to the side of the plug will work just fine. . . . .trust me.

 

A little heat can help a lot, you can get a basic Bernz-O-Matic plumbers propane torch kit at Lowes's/Home Depot or even The Mart for less than $30.

 

This is exactly the torch I bought to loosen some difficult hardware while doing suspension work. Works great. Access anywhere.

It may be a little late at this point but one key to the hex diff plug is thoroughly cleaning out the recess before getting started, so the 10mm will fit all the way inside. Often the stripping happens when the 10mm isn’t fully seated into the plug recess.

 

just use a fluid pump and extract the fluid through the fill hole. and put some anti-seize on the fill plug.

 

Probably best bet is to weld a bolt to the plug, and then try removing the bolt.

 

Got it out, 49ft/lbs my ass. Used the chisel method, plug decided to listen and come out. Noticed the fluid was extremely dirty compared to the rear, it was pretty black and the rear looked clean/newish (they were both "changed" at the same time @ 45k by the dealer). Is that normal for the front to be dirtier than the rear? I use 4wd in the winter/camping/backroads/off roading. This is my daily driver, so most of the time I have it in 2wd. Any thoughts? Thinking of doing the transfer case also since the front fluid was so dirty, hope the dealer didn't pull any BS and wrote it up saying all 3 were changed but only did the rear at the time...

 

Gets me to thinking about using this. I once used it to remove standing water 13’ down into a steel pole. I couldn’t believe it did it and done it well with a battery powered drill. 13’!!!!

I’m not sure if it’s strong enough to flow the viscosity of gear oil, but we gonna find out.

 

well now we need to know where you got it

 

Congrats!

Have replaced diff fluids on dozens of Tacomas. The front diff is always dirtier than the T case and rear diff. Not sure why, but it's normal.

 

Fluid was always dirtier looking in the front differential than the rear on all my different year toyota pickups.

 

I am about to embark on this crusade. Wish me luck.

 

I am looking for a deal on the toyota front diff fluid - im ready otherwise.

Ill be early on all 3...