- Apr 19, 2014
- 83
My plan this week has been to do the rear differential fluid change this weekend and my Royal Purple gear oil will not get here until tomorrow, so I decided to try to see how stuck the fill plug would be (I have an '06, so no drain plug). I picked up a nice, longer set of differential plugs today at the new Harbor Freight store.
I finally coaxed the fill plug loose (looks like it was never opened...rusty, and stubborn, took a few hammer strikes), and what do I find? Fluid starts spurting out of it! I had jacked up the rear passenger side in my driveway (very slight incline) so I could fit under it without taking the spare off. Do you guys think it was overfilled? Wondering if someone or GM filled it up with that tube that comes out of the top of the differential because the fill plug was stuck. I was surprised, I managed to get the plug back in without loosing too much....I know it was less 1/4 of a quart of fluid.
Bottom line: was the fluid shifted because I jacked it up? I jacked it up on the same side as the plug, so I would think the fluid would be shifted slightly to the other side. I'm still puzzled why it came gushing out like it did...wonder if someone overfilled it or the factory did? What are your thoughts?
PS I'm tempted to drive my old pickup truck the next two days in case somehow the fluid was shifted forward in the differential and there's not that much fluid in there....won't know for sure until I drain it and refill it Saturday afternoon/evening. Feel free to tell me if I'm worrying about nothing....a multi hundred dollar axle repair is the thing keeping me spooked if I lost too much fluid.
Here's an attached image of some of the fluid on the ground...got a lot down my arm.
Here's the link...apparently it doesn't like me using a JPEG image on here.
http://gmtnation.com/forums/gallery/image/330-dif-fluid/
I finally coaxed the fill plug loose (looks like it was never opened...rusty, and stubborn, took a few hammer strikes), and what do I find? Fluid starts spurting out of it! I had jacked up the rear passenger side in my driveway (very slight incline) so I could fit under it without taking the spare off. Do you guys think it was overfilled? Wondering if someone or GM filled it up with that tube that comes out of the top of the differential because the fill plug was stuck. I was surprised, I managed to get the plug back in without loosing too much....I know it was less 1/4 of a quart of fluid.
Bottom line: was the fluid shifted because I jacked it up? I jacked it up on the same side as the plug, so I would think the fluid would be shifted slightly to the other side. I'm still puzzled why it came gushing out like it did...wonder if someone overfilled it or the factory did? What are your thoughts?
PS I'm tempted to drive my old pickup truck the next two days in case somehow the fluid was shifted forward in the differential and there's not that much fluid in there....won't know for sure until I drain it and refill it Saturday afternoon/evening. Feel free to tell me if I'm worrying about nothing....a multi hundred dollar axle repair is the thing keeping me spooked if I lost too much fluid.
Here's an attached image of some of the fluid on the ground...got a lot down my arm.
Here's the link...apparently it doesn't like me using a JPEG image on here.
http://gmtnation.com/forums/gallery/image/330-dif-fluid/
).
