Synthetic or conventional for differentials

Anything is better than the stock stuff in my 2005 with 218k miles

 

I wonder what the factory fill was. I bought my truck with 36k on the odometer, 1 previous owner, no record of diff fluid ever changed, so I drained it and it came out gray! Looked terrible and I was shocked as the rest of the truck was a cream puff.

I filled with the Valvoline in the plastic bag. What a great idea, very easy. Previously used a hand pump that screwed onto the bottle. Your hand is DONE by the time you pumped 100 times.

 

I am just shocked that Toyota doesn't recommend a change of the diff lube for 30,000 miles. From the looks of lube at 10,000 miles I wouldn't want that the fine metal wear particles chewing away at my seals and bearings.

And i agree that synthetic or not getting it changed is highly recommended...

I didn't take a picture of mine at the first change but it did look similar to this photo.. Does anybody want that in your diff for 30,000 miles ???

 

Didn't have the squeeze bottles when I did it so used this fluid transfer pump. Took like 10-15 pumps to fill differential.
Previously uses one of the bottle mounted mini pumps and yes, it took a 100 or more pumps. About 40 per quart.

Koehler Enterprises RA990 Multi-Use Siphon Fuel Transfer Pump Kit (for Gas Oil and Liquids), Red medium

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0181EDCZ6?ie=UTF8

 

^ Bookmarked that for a future purchase. That'll save a ton of time.

 

This^^^^ anything else is a waste of your money. Or buy one, keep the bag and dump what ever other stuff you have on to the bag and use it(remember the transfer case uses the same stuff)

cheers!

 

This is my favorite way to do gear oil changes:

$35 Mityvac MVA6851 7oz Fluid Evacuator Extractor and Dispensing Syringe, Lightweight, Easy to Clean, 7-1/2" Flexible Tube, Non-drip Cap, for Master Cylinders, Transaxles, Power Steering and Coolant

Amazon.com: Mityvac MVA6851 Fluid Extractor, Syringe Action to Extract and Dispense Fluids Into or Out of Small Reservoirs Including Master Cylinder, Transaxles and Power Steering and Coolant Reservoirs : Automotive

The only thing is if it's cold outside, thick fluid like 85W-140 won't want to pump through it, so I heated the fluid up with a space heater. Otherwise it works great and so much easier than using any of the pumps. I have the one I linked, but they make a 1.5L version that I'm interested in trying for an even faster job.

I definitely have considered buying a bag of fluid and then pouring my fluid into that though, but I feel like it would take me a while having to pour each quart into a bag before squeezing into the truck.

 

This is cheap and easy way to transfer fluid. I used this method for tranny fluid before I switched to the hose through the engine bay method. The pump sprayer also worked good on gear oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp9dLOh8l2M