The service manual recommends that you inspect the differential gear oil every 15k miles unless you are towing a trailer, using a camper or a car-top carrier, or driving on rough or muddy roads, THEN CHANGE (not just inspect) fluid /oil at every 30,000 miles (48,000 km) or 24 months.
FYI: My dealer charges: $99.95 for this service.
***Disclaimer: This is just a guide - I am not responsible for you messing up your car or making a giant mess. Please seek the help of a qualified mechanic or the dealer if this seems too difficult.***
Time: 1.5 – 2 hours
Tools/Supplies Needed:
A. 10mm allen head wrench or socket for the FILLER and DRAIN plug
B. Service Manual states you MUST use a new FILLER and DRAIN plug gasket/washer (however, it is not a crush washer like for the oil filter, so you probably don’t have to. Although, I used a new one)
Infiniti Part number: 11026-4N200, they were $2.14 a piece at my local dealer –I’ll be using them again when I change the differential fluid the next time…lol
C. Some sort of catch can or basin to catch the old differential oil
D. 3 pts of 80W-90 or 75W-90 differential oil
E. transmission pump (I bought the one below from Harbor Freight and it is too big to fit the top of the narrow bottle of the differential gear fluid
I should've just bought one of the basic transmission pumps)
F. Jack stands/ramps
Cost: transmission pump: $11.00 + 2 bottles of differential gear oil: $6.00 each + 2 new plug gaskets: $4.28 = about $28.00
10 mm allen head socket
Differential gear oil
Differential gear oil specs. ***Notice that the VK56 takes less differential gear oil
transmission Pump
From the Service Manual
Steps/Process
1. Drive around to warm the fluid up, but then let your car cool before getting all wheels jacked up and/or on ramps.
2. The rear differential is easy to spot when looking underneath from the back of the car.
3. You want to loosen and remove the FILLER plug first. This is because if you remove the DRAIN plug and then can't remove the fill plug.....yep, TROUBLE
The FILLER plug is facing the passenger side of the car, the DRAIN plug is facing the rear of the car. I took this photo looking at the FILLER plug, so from the passenger side of the car.
4. Place your drip pan underneath the DRAIN plug and start to loosen it. Once you've determined that it can be loosened, go ahead and remove it. Here's mine - notice all the crap on it. You can then remove the FILLER plug so that it should drain faster.
5. Here's all the junk that came off on the paper towel after I cleaned it.
6. Place a (new) gasket on the DRAIN plug and replace it. Number 27 on the diagram is the DRAIN plug with the correct torque specs:
35 N-m, (3.6 kg-m, 26 ft-lb)
7. Use your transmission pump and start to fill the differential. Once you start to get close to 3 pints, you should start slowing down because once it starts to run out of the fill hole, then you're done. Although, the service manual states you are supposed to check by sticking your finger in the filler hole to see that it is full. (I'm not sure whose finger actually fits in that sized hole - maybe a 5 year old's but my fat, stubby fingers weren't testing anything. I sort of stopped paying attention and suddenly realized oil was dripping out of the filler hole, so I had to wait for that to stop before replacing the filler plug-lol) FILLER plug (number 23 in the exploded diagram above) torque specs: 44 N-m, (4.5 kg-m, 32 ft-lb)
8. Lower car off ramps/jack stands - DONE!!!
Craig
