Hey all, Happy Holidays-
I just wanted to share some thoughts from my recent rear differential fluid change. . . . .
I bought a gallon of Honda VTM4 fluid and the two crush washers (different sizes) for the drain and fill plugs from my local dealer. About $29 which was a good bit cheaper than the $120 they quoted me for them to change the fluid. Others have found dealers willing to change the fluid for considerably less but for me it was more of a matter of wanting to do it myself. I also bought a MityVac fluid transfer pump from PEP boys which turned out to be absolutely worthless!
I used a 1/2 inch breaker bar (about 18" long) with a 3/8" adapter and and 3"aprox long 3/8" extension (which is the correct size square head to fit in the fill and drain bolts) as the tool to undo the bolts. They were a bit tough to break loose but not too bad. After reading a few posts here I had my pnuematic impact driver handy incase I needed it to free the bolts but the breaker bar did the trick.
It took about a half an hour for all the fluid to drain out even with 55F temps and a just driven on the highway truck. Be prepared to wait a bit! The fluid that drained out looked pretty much like the new fluid (Ridge with 15K miles) and the magnet portion of the drain plug had a few very fine filings stuck to it. Who knows how worn out (if at all) the fluid was but of course following Honda's guidlines is the only safe way to go.
After snugging up the drain bolt and new washer (no torque wrench just "good n tite") the refill process ran into a snag. The pump I bought was either defective or simply insufficient to draw the fluid up from the container to the fill hole on the diff. The pump instructions suggested that the fill from container should be higher than the fill to container which pretty much defeats the purpose but even attempts at priming the pump with a high held VTM4 fluid container proved unsuccesful. Since it was late on Christmas eve I didn't have too many trip to the store options. However, a simple solution occured to me in my moment of dispair!! No, transfer pump or turkey baister was needed, just gravity, a long hose and a deep ATF style funnel. The hose and funnel should be new without old oil etc in them! I removed the drain plug in the trunk and ran the long hose from the funnel (which I bungeed high up to the open trunk lid) down through the drain hole in the trunk and then into the fill hole in the differential. I found on the internet somewhere that the Diff capactity was 2.79 qts so slowly poured about that much fluid into the funnel. The fluid ran down slowly but the funnel was deep enough that it could resevoir about a quart at a time. I kept topping off the fluid until it started to run out the fill plug into the catch pan that I had left underneath the Diff. I waited a minute or two for the overfill to drain out and then tightened down the fill plug. All told this setup was easy to create and cheap. The pump will be going back to Pep Boys! I will set the funnel and hose asside for the next change . . . .
Hope this is of interest to someone!
I just wanted to share some thoughts from my recent rear differential fluid change. . . . .
I bought a gallon of Honda VTM4 fluid and the two crush washers (different sizes) for the drain and fill plugs from my local dealer. About $29 which was a good bit cheaper than the $120 they quoted me for them to change the fluid. Others have found dealers willing to change the fluid for considerably less but for me it was more of a matter of wanting to do it myself. I also bought a MityVac fluid transfer pump from PEP boys which turned out to be absolutely worthless!
I used a 1/2 inch breaker bar (about 18" long) with a 3/8" adapter and and 3"aprox long 3/8" extension (which is the correct size square head to fit in the fill and drain bolts) as the tool to undo the bolts. They were a bit tough to break loose but not too bad. After reading a few posts here I had my pnuematic impact driver handy incase I needed it to free the bolts but the breaker bar did the trick.
It took about a half an hour for all the fluid to drain out even with 55F temps and a just driven on the highway truck. Be prepared to wait a bit! The fluid that drained out looked pretty much like the new fluid (Ridge with 15K miles) and the magnet portion of the drain plug had a few very fine filings stuck to it. Who knows how worn out (if at all) the fluid was but of course following Honda's guidlines is the only safe way to go.
After snugging up the drain bolt and new washer (no torque wrench just "good n tite") the refill process ran into a snag. The pump I bought was either defective or simply insufficient to draw the fluid up from the container to the fill hole on the diff. The pump instructions suggested that the fill from container should be higher than the fill to container which pretty much defeats the purpose but even attempts at priming the pump with a high held VTM4 fluid container proved unsuccesful. Since it was late on Christmas eve I didn't have too many trip to the store options. However, a simple solution occured to me in my moment of dispair!! No, transfer pump or turkey baister was needed, just gravity, a long hose and a deep ATF style funnel. The hose and funnel should be new without old oil etc in them! I removed the drain plug in the trunk and ran the long hose from the funnel (which I bungeed high up to the open trunk lid) down through the drain hole in the trunk and then into the fill hole in the differential. I found on the internet somewhere that the Diff capactity was 2.79 qts so slowly poured about that much fluid into the funnel. The fluid ran down slowly but the funnel was deep enough that it could resevoir about a quart at a time. I kept topping off the fluid until it started to run out the fill plug into the catch pan that I had left underneath the Diff. I waited a minute or two for the overfill to drain out and then tightened down the fill plug. All told this setup was easy to create and cheap. The pump will be going back to Pep Boys! I will set the funnel and hose asside for the next change . . . .
Hope this is of interest to someone!