Changing the gear oil in your rear differential is one of the easiest maintenance items you can do on your truck. For about $40 and a half hour you can do what my local oil change place charges $120 for.
Changing this oil out on a regular basis makes sure your differential (an expensive part!) stays in tip-top shape for a good long time.
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Tools Required:
- 1/2″ Breaker Bar: To get the fill and drain bolts off with a 24mm socket.
- Torque Wrench: 1/2″ To tighten the nuts back on to 36 ft lbs.
- Gear Oil: 3 quarts. I used 3 bottles of 1 Qt Valvoline SynPower SAE 75W-90 Full Synthetic Gear Oil
- Gasket Kit: You cannot reuse the gaskets / crush washers that sit on the fill and drain bolts. New ones are cheap. This kit has what you need.
- Drain Pan: To collect the used gear oil.
- An empty bottle: something to drain the used oil into when you bring it to your local auto parts store for disposal.
Video Walk-Through:
Check out our step-by-step video tutorial first to get an idea of the process, then you can read the guide below and print it out if you want.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Descriptive pictures below this guide!
Preparatory Work:
- Safety First: Park on a level surface, engage the parking brake, and place wheel chocks behind the rear wheels.
- You don’t need to jack the truck up at all, in fact you want it to be as level as possible.
- You’ll have a little more room if you lower and remove your spare tire.
Draining the Old Oil:
- Put the drain pan under the drain plug.
- Using the breaker bar and a 24mm socket, remove the fill plug and put aside.
- Using the breaker bar and 24mm socket, remove the drain plug and prepare for the oil to drain out.
- Let the oil drain until it stops.
- Using a paper towel or shop rag, clean the top of the drain bolt off. There is a magnet on it which collects the fine metal shavings which have come off of the gears. Get it good and clean.
- Put a new oil drain plug gasket (crush washer) with the flat part against the bolt head, and the grooved part installed towards the differential and hand tighten back on to ensure it’s threaded properly.
- Torque the drain bolt to 36 ft lbs.
- Open your first bottle of gear oil, and empty it into the fill hole. Repeat until you’ve used nearly all 3 quarts and you start to see new oil seeping from the fill hole.
- Put your finger into the fill hole to see that you can feel the oil just beneath the lip of the hole.
- If its all the way filled, replace the fill bolt (don’t forget to put a new drain plug gasket on) and torque it to 36 ft lbs.
- Clean up the area and you’re done!
