Changing differential fluid - A step by step "HOW TO"

Thanks boss! Guess I overlooked it somehow.

 

Did this today with Lucas SAE 80W-90. I took the dog for a ride to test, but I never got above 20 MPH. So far no strange noises.

My 2011 Sport does not have the "LSD" sticker on it. Per Chris' recommendation, I did not add any friction modifier. I'll update if anything happens, but no news is good news.

I did not lower the spare. You can see by the bottle in the middle that I used the squeeze the crap out of it method to get all the fluid out. I do have one question though. What's with all the gunk in the bottom of the bottle? All three containers had this stuff in the bottom. I assume it is something that settled over time, but I didn't see anything about "Shake before use" .

I'll have to add pictures later. Something is going on with my internet connection.

 

Ok, so here are the pictures:

The oil used:


Junk inside the bottle:


A close up of the junk:



Any idea what that stuff could be? It looked just like the crap that was stuck to the magnet. I was a little concerned at first, but every bottle had that stuff in it, so it must be by design.

 

You did have to break the seal on each bottle, correct? There have been some horror stories where oil had been returned in the original bottle, mixed up and restocked.

 

Yep. broke the seal on all 6 bottles. (did front and tcase also) Every one of them had this in it. The oil that came out was clean though....

 

Does the drain plug have a crush washer on it? Just pulled it off and didn't see one on the plug...

 

Found it. Bottom of the pan.

 

Just changed all of mine diff's fluids. 2012 2.7l 4x4 reg cab, used red line fluid 75w90 everything took about 6 Qts. Took about 2 hours thanks to a ugly filler plug on the rear diff. O'Reilly sells replacements for 2 $ plus tax.

Truck just ticked over 60k miles fluids came out dark grey and milky. Classic smell.

 

Did mine last weekend, no major issues. I did drop the spare though.
The fill plug sure is easy to mangle if not careful.
I found that my 15/16 socket worked better than my 24mm.

Also found this attached to the drain plug...at just over 18kmiles with very little heavy use. Is this a normal chunk?

sorry for the focus on the pix.

Thx,
PC

 

Thanks Chris.

I had the normal smaller sludge stuff on there and this big pc.

I guess i am a bit surprised, as I bought the truck new and i have driven this truck really easy.
Nothing but normal farm/yard use...i did pull up a small rotten tree stump last year but that came up pretty easily.
I did have to bump it a couple times to free the tap root, so maybe that's when whatever happened?

Glad i checked though, and will for sure have another look
in a few 1000 miles...hopefully nothing severe.

Best,
PC

 

OK so after reading all these post I am confused on what is the best oil to get.. 2006 sport with 120k on it. have not had the truck long, so i figured i wld get all fluids changed ASAP.... so what oil is the best to get front & rear diff , transfer case and tranny.. gotta do plugs and wires to (hoping that will help my MPG=14.5

 

I'm just curious, why no synthetic in the rear.

 

I know this thread is long but I would like to thank everyone's input here. I have a 2009 Tacoma TRD off road 2wD with 52500 miles and just did the rear diff fluid change using this thread as a guide. Tim

 

I changed my diff fluid yesterday and I noticed that at no point did any fluid overflow out of the fill plug. I have a 2011 2wd base and the manual says 3.66 quarts. I put right around 3.75 quarts in but I did take a good 5-10 mins in between quarts. Could this be why it never overflowed or do you guys think I need to add more? Thanks for the help in advance.

 

I changed the oil too the other day and the same thing happened to me. I added 3.12 quarts as per the manual (probably a little more than that) and waited between quarts. The fluid never came out of the fill hole. I looked inside with a flashlight and did notice the level right below the bottom of the fill hole. I have put 200 miles since then no problem.

 

Yeah I just went out and checked with a flashlight and mines right under the fill hole as well. At least I don't have to worry about that anymore lol.

Oh and thanks for the write up op.