I bought my Jeep with 200k miles on it and now it has 275k and I’ve never changed the diff fluid. I figured now’s the time to change it!

It seems like the standard method of doing this is to remove the cover and clean the diff. I have a small transfer pump to change the transfer case fluid. I was thinking of using this to pump out the gear oil in the diff without removing the cover; however, a downside would be that I wouldn’t be able to inspect and clean the diff.

What do you all think?

 

When I swapped over to synthetic in my diffs I did remove the covers.
But after that every 5 years I just suck out what I can and refill.
Instead of using a gasket I used some gear oil RTV.
But had I known about LubeLocker gaskets I would have went that route.
If you pull the covers you might want to check into them.

 

Pull the covers. You don't get out of the shower and put dirty undies on.

 

You underestimate people, lol

If you have a few extra dollars, pick up some Lube Locker gaskets. They're reusable and work great, makes diff services a breeze.

 

drill and tap a drain hole. but a pipe plug in it with a magnet on the plug. easy peasy.

 

I'll prob get reamed for this but when I changed out the oil in mine, I replaced with Royal Purple synt gear lube.... so noisy / whiny I drained all of it out and replaced with some name brand 95-140 wt..I pulled the covers on both and gave everything a good inspection and cleaning. Used felpro gaskets on the reinstall. If you warm the fluid up...it maked pumping back in much easier. I had around 200-250K on them. Mine had magnets on the inside of the cover already. Fine powder but nothing shiny or chunky. I think those covers are pretty thin to try and install a drain plug, but maybe there is a kit or something

 

Drill and tap the case not the cover, case is thick enough

 

Pull the cover and do it the correct way, I clean it all out with brake cleaner, also get a lube locker gasket.