I spent a few years in Atlanta - took same cars there and back to Denver. Had some surface rust develop all over the Civic... not sure what that was about but if you leave a car parked during the pandemic in the south, I think the humid air can still cause some rust/corrosion... you probably haven't done that to find out yet in the south? :P

I'm a ways south of Atlanta, but between 6 cars (4 current, 2 now sold) over a decade here and without covered parking most of that time... there's no real rust to talk about. The worst of it is the aftermarket chrome junk on my wifes '66 Bug (but anything "chromed" today is junk thanks to EPA laws), and I'm slowly converting that to either stainless or original chrome. Any rust found, is on the surface and wipes off easily enough. Even if you don't ever wipe it off, it never becomes cancer rust like the salt-states endure.

Honestly, I would settle for just being able to get the fill plug off. I used a breaker bar with a 24mm shallow socket and the factory bottle jack and only succeeded in rounding the hex edges of the bolt a little bit. I mean, I can appreciate "factory tight" but this thing is absurd.

Some folks resort to welding a high-strength socket to the plug, if that's an option.

I've never had an issue using a 6 point socket on a fill plug bathed in PB Blaster for 24 hours.

I finally got it loose. Left it overnight with the bottle jack at the end of the breaker bar. Doused it with PB and Kroil while I had that setup in place.

This evening I put the 1/2" drive socket wrench on it and hit the wrench a few times with a rubber mallet. I half-expected it to be rounded off when it started moving, but it turns out that it was the plug moving after all.

After 20 years and 291K miles, I'd say she's due for a change. First one that I know of. She's been mostly dealer-serviced, but the diff oil change was never a recommended service that came up AFAIK or remember. Better late than never, I guess.

Thanks for the pointer to this thread.

I am going to do more pre-soaking of the threads having gone through what I did with the rear.

There's also a chance I am gong to go to a DIY garage with a lift to knock these out, as well as a front brake job. Hopefully not laying on concrete and not going in too optimistically will make for a more sober experience. I will be sure to report back in on how it goes!

Oh boy, this front diff looks like all kinds of potential material for a future post. LOL

To anyone who has done this front diff bolt removal...can you confirm if it is a 10mm or 12mm allen head? I'd like to save my daughter a trip to Menards this weekend by buying the right one in advance. I have a 10mm but am thinking it might be good to get an impact socket and put the power to her!

According to a search of this forum, for part # 9034118032, it's 10 mm for the fill plug.

I seem to remember that sometimes it’s 10mm, sometimes it’s 12mm? I don’t remember the cutover year (or even if model year is the differentiator. or maybe it’s just the difference between the drain plug and fill plug? I don’t know.)

If you want to upgrade away from an Allen head:
- Replace front diff fill plug with Lexus PN 9034118060
- Replace front diff drain plug with Lexus PN 9034124016

Disclaimer: those Lexus part numbers are for a 2000. Double check if fits your truck.

Sounds like you might have a whole lot more corrosion than I'm used to seeing, but I want to post this trick just incase. Fasteners that are Known to be made of cheese (round out easily) are best treated gently if you want the best change of success. Throwing "mor powar!" into the equation just means throwing a welder or EDM into the mix too, more often than not. So try this instead (any stubborn fastener, ever) ~ apply just enough force that nothing's slipping and hold it there. Torque (force) is cumulative, so you either add a TON over a short time, or a Little over a long time. The downside to using lots, is that you risk rounding the means by which you have to rely to remove the fastener. It will absolutely take more time than you think is reasonable while holding the wrench, set a timer and don't let up for at Least 1 minute, more is better.

This is a simplified (and not technically accurate) statement, but easy to remember and Very functional.

Other tricks are to try Tightening then loosening. Apply some heat to Just the bolt. Give it a good smack with a hammer. Mix, match and combine.. I usually try time first, then tightening, then hitting and finally heat (can do the first 3 without moving from the work).

FWIW, all of my diff drain/fill ports were in good condition, fought me a little to come off but were removed without damage and I reused them all.

Ah, sorry, I have not gone under her yet to get a look. Was just anticipating disaster based on the thread about it someone posted earlier.

Previous owner replaced fluids about 40K ago, so I'm hoping the fasteners are not in that bad of shape. If they are, I'll just let them be, since this is more preventative maintenance than trying to solve a problem I'm having.

Thanks for the tips, those are good to know!