Differential fluid

How often do you change your differential Fluid? Valvoline told me ever 15,000 mile. I don’t know when it was changed last but I put about 10,000 on it in a year and I changed it with an oil change.

 

every 30,000 for me with synthetic gear oil.

 

Every 30-40k ish with Amsoil Severe Gear

$29 75w-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75w-90, sooner if I've been doing dumb things like water crossings and such.

That said, never noticed water in my diffs.

I do have breathers extended though.

 

@30 k miles.

 

I've done 30k changes as Toyota recommends. I do a bit of towing and backing jetskis into water. Guess it comes down to usage.

 

Me? Around 50k or so.

But 30k is better, and that’s probably what you should stick to.

 

Or never if you’re like most people.
I’d venture to say, 75% or more differentials are running on “lifetime” fluid.

Toyota made it easy. They gave us a drain plug.

 

Every 10-15k is nuts. 30 min, 60 max.

Toyota diff's don't fail. Just use what ever GL5 you want.

 

30K or whenever I have done a re-gear or a locker.
Getting ready to step up to 4.56 gears and new oil.

 

There are many thoughts on this topic and even if many never do change the rear (and in fact front diff and xfer) they can fail due to overheating damage or simply wear from heavy towing, payloads, older sloppy bearings, the front pinion crush sleeve loose, and/or a biggie is gear shock/instant loading offroading. I had to do a full bearing change after heavy towing. Then as nearing 200k offroad on steep rocky area chipped the stock 3.73 OEM ring and pinion on heavy throttle as rear hopped then got traction and that was it. So, we will see how the full rebuilt rear holds up in the future. Diff oil was nearly new on the last.

The bottom line is yes change it based on use/heat/age/mileage to lessen the chance of failure but it can still occur.
When/if you change it look at the metal flakes in it due to gear/bearing wear and you realize that new/clean fluid can only help delay time to failure and lessen seal damage.
That is why Toyota has a maintenance schedule based on normal and heavy use. In fact, the times and mileage have gotten longer due to better quality parts/fluids.

 

At 20k after new gears mine was pretty dark, the transfer case oil still looked new. Will probably reduce to 15k for future changes diff changes.

 

I do all 3 front diff rear and tranfer case every 60k kms ish when ever I have time with 75 w 90 and I use 4wd drive every day.

 

60k is plenty often enough with regular driving.