Differential fluid change - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

megamac83 · 07-24-2006, 02:30 PM

Hey guys my gear oil is leaking out but its black as midnight, I want to put new fluid in but I can't seem to find wheere to pour it in, I see the plug to drain it but not the plug to fill it up? Please help me out!!! and what type of gear oil do I take

NewRacer · 07-24-2006, 05:51 PM

Differential fluid? I didn't know GEN4 Camry has defferential unit in the car. Do you mean the auto tranny fluid?

kocho · 07-24-2006, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by megamac83

Hey guys my gear oil is leaking out but its black as midnight, I want to put new fluid in but I can't seem to find wheere to pour it in, I see the plug to drain it but not the plug to fill it up? Please help me out!!! and what type of gear oil do I take

4 or 6 cylinder? If it is 4, then the tranny and diff oils need to be replaced separately. The opening to pour-in is on the back side of the diferential if I remember right. You need some sort of a funnel with a hose (they sell these for $3-$4 that screw directly on the oil bottle and have a stop/go valve to help you as you fit the hose in and hold the bottle above the hole. I had to do it from under the car if I remember.... It has been a while since I did it, but I've done it twice so far - at 25 and at 50K miles. You are right that there are two drains - one for the auto fluid, the other for the diferential and the oil is separate. I got a '00 i4 auto...

The Gen 4 6 cylinder as far as I know does not have a separate filler hole - tranny and diff share the same fluid.

If you are indeed talking about the differential fluid in a Gen 4 with auto tranny, then the diff and tranny fluid are the same. I used Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF and it has worked great. First time I put it in was when the car was at about 25K , then once more around 50K and have not touched it again since - 103K miles now as it still looks good...

NewRacer · 07-24-2006, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kocho

The Gen 4 6 cylinder as far as I know does not have a separate filler hole - tranny and diff share the same fluid.

So, the GEN4 Camry has front differential unit in the tranny?

***toyomoho*** · 07-24-2006, 07:18 PM

The Gen 4 service manual shows the 4 cylinder engine with a Model A140E automatic has a differential taking 1.7 quarts of Dexron. The drain appears on the bottom of the its housing, the fill appears on the driver’s side. I think the Gen 3 was on the back.

The V6 engine using the A541E automatic takes 0.89 quarts of ATF-D or Dexron in the differential (which ever fluid is used in the transmission). The drain plug appears on the back of its housing (between firewall and trans). The fill plug appears on the driver’s side of the housing.

The manual trans does not have a separate differential fluid housing. Drain plug appears on the drivers side, fill plug the front. Use SAE 75W-90, 2.6 quarts.

Check your transmission and see if the plugs are there. Look on the drivers side, bottom and back of the differential housing for the automatic.

***Eye8Pussies*** · 07-24-2006, 11:03 PM

if your differential is separate from the rest of the tranny fluids and there is only a hole on the side to get to- I think the haynes manual recommended using a turkey baster

I haven't done it yet, as I did a full machine flush a couple of years back, but I'm planning on doing it soon since I just drained the rest of the tranny fluid working on some other things, and then I'll bring it in for a machine flush

touringcamry · 07-24-2006, 11:26 PM

On my Gen 4 I4 auto, there is a fill hole on the back of the differential (the fill hole faces the firewall) and you need a 17mm socket or wrench to get to it. The drain hole is a 10mm hex key.

I got a funnel and about 5 ft of PVC (vinyl) hose from the hardware store to fill the differential. I had the car on a lift so that it would be even. I fed the hose down the engine bay and crawled underneath and put the end into the differential. I then put a drain pan under the differential opening. Went to the top and attached the funnel to the hose with a barb fitting and proceeded to fill the differential. I filled it until fluid started to come out of the fill hole. Then closed it up.

v-cam · 07-25-2006, 12:22 AM

Sorry to thread jack, but does the GEN3 V6 share the auto and diff oil aswell? 3vz-fe.

nodrogkam · 07-25-2006, 01:52 AM

get your tranny flushed!
i got mine done at jiffy lube with their machine. it took forever since the camry isnt pressurized like other cars but it was well worth the flush.

touringcamry · 07-25-2006, 02:23 AM

Whoa, you actually trusted Jiffy Lube to do this flush service? The differential and the transmission fluid may be separate, and if that's the case, the the trans flush won't do anything for the differential fluid.

nodrogkam · 07-25-2006, 02:33 AM

the jiffy lube by my house used to be pretty corrupt which was good for me as i got things done for less, but since they guys were just being straight up with me, they still did the same work. And i know they did the work.

Although i do a lot of work myself these days, i still go down there for some things or for other cars we own. The key is to keep watching them and make sure they know you're watching. There's this one girl that has been there for all the years ive brought cars to em, so im not concered about them not doing the job or doing it wrong.

megamac83 · 07-25-2006, 06:13 PM

Thanks guys for all the info, some how my diff was filled with gear oil instead of Dexron III, does any body know something about some poxy unit for the differential?

dl175 · 07-25-2006, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kocho

4 or 6 cylinder? If it is 4, then the tranny and diff oils need to be replaced separately. The opening to pour-in is on the back side of the diferential if I remember right. You need some sort of a funnel with a hose (they sell these for $3-$4 that screw directly on the oil bottle and have a stop/go valve to help you as you fit the hose in and hold the bottle above the hole. I had to do it from under the car if I remember.... It has been a while since I did it, but I've done it twice so far - at 25 and at 50K miles. You are right that there are two drains - one for the auto fluid, the other for the diferential and the oil is separate. I got a '00 i4 auto...

The Gen 4 6 cylinder as far as I know does not have a separate filler hole - tranny and diff share the same fluid.

If you are indeed talking about the differential fluid in a Gen 4 with auto tranny, then the diff and tranny fluid are the same. I used Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF and it has worked great. First time I put it in was when the car was at about 25K , then once more around 50K and have not touched it again since - 103K miles now as it still looks good...

dl175 · 07-25-2006, 09:14 PM

I have a 1998 V6 and it does indeed have a seperate differential filler hole. It is very
difficult to see but it is located behind the driver side wheel area. You must remove
the driver side wheel in order to see the differential filler bolt. I had a mechanic do
the differential oil change and the mechanic had a difficult time removing this bolt
since it was never removed. It took many socket extention to actually reach the
filler bolt. (over 18 inch for the socket extention).

***toyomoho*** · 07-25-2006, 09:16 PM

If this is an automatic transmission, use the same fluid in the differential that is used in the transmission. If it is a manual trans, the differential and transmission gearboxes are combined and use 75W-90 gear oil.

I doubt if using gear oil in the automatic differential will cause harm. The differential gears in the automatic are most likely the same as the manual. Drain the gear oil out, refill with Dexron or whatever the transmission uses.