i bought my car used and don't have the owners manual. how often should the diff fluid be replaced? what type do you recommend?

also, how often should the clutch fluid be replaced? thanks

DOHCscreamer wrote:i bought my car used and don't have the owners manual. how often should the diff fluid be replaced? what type do you recommend?

I like to change mine every 30k miles or two years. No hard and fast rule on when to do this per se, but this is an easy and relatively low-cost change to do.

Procedure (in case you did not know and want to DIY):

1. Buy Mobil-1 Synthetic 75W-90 Gear Oil (or consider using their 75W-140 if you are in hotter climates). You will need two of these 1 qt bottles.

2. Up on a lift, unscrew the fill hole bolt first (in case you have difficulty with getting this open, it is better to know before you do the drain hole bolt! )

4. Unscrew the drain hole bolt. Let the old oil drain out completely.

5. Screw in the drain hole bolt and torque it to spec. Fill with the Mobil-1 Gear Oil, using the fill bolt hole till it just pours out of the fill hole - this will use much/most of the two bottles.

5. Screw in the fill hole and torque it down to spec (which I forget ... but I am sure that people will chime in on that!)

You are done!

My safety advice: use a lift to get under the car, or good ramps ... certainly never use a simple hydraulic jack, no matter how good it is. I also consider most jack stands unsafe for this purpose!

Z

Is there a crush washer on the drain plug?