Changed diff fluid without drain bolt

I was trying to change my front diff fluid, but stripped the drain bold a little bit. I took it to a local jiffy lube to see if they could get it off, but they ended up suctioning out the fluid through the fill plug and refilling it.

My question is if i should spend the money to redo this the correct way so that i can clean the magnet in the drain plug.

Is it that big of deal? Or can i put it off for another 30k miles and let the drain plug be.

 

you should be fine,


wait until the next interval and then install a new OEM bolt at that time

 

This is common with Tacomas, same thing happened to me, took a Dremel and squared the points up on the Hex then banged a hex socket into it and was able to get it out. Just have a new drain plug ready to go because the old one will be thrashed after that.

Don't let it sit, these tend to seize up the longer they sit. You can also use the search function on TW to research different ways of getting the stripped bolt out.

 

I was able to use a small air hammer and long chisel to get a good bite on the flat surface of the head. Was able to get a nice replacement plug on eBay with a hex head so I wouldn’t have to deal with it again