I changed the rear differential oil, but might have left one or two small bits of plastic inside the housing. This was my first time using the squeeze bags of the gear oil, and I didn't realize the nozzle on the bag has a cap. I just cut off the tip of the nozzle, including the tip of the cap, with a knife, and the remaining part of the cap might have come off the nozzle and fallen into the inside of the housing when I added the oil. The part that might have fallen inside is circled in red in the photo.

If there is one or two bits of plastic inside the rear differential housing, will that cause any problems? If necessary, I will change the oil again to try to get the plastic bits out of the housing.

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I did an early diff oil change on my 2021 Tacoma at 15,000 miles and there was an alarming quantity of metal shavings, some nearly the size of a dime, that came out with the factory rear diff oil. The truck never towed anything or hauled anywhere near capacity. Wish I had taken a picture. But it ran and continued to run fine with no issues. There were many similar stories on the Tacoma forums.

But bottom line, a little speck of plastic is not an issue to be concerned with. Motor on without worry.

Thanks, BlueHenT4R.

If the lid is in the diff, you need to get it out. Either via drain or other. I bet the plastic will cause lubrication, clearance and other issues over time. I bet it wont even get ground up by the gears but will create shavings and other bits that will cause problems. Drain plug magnet will not work either.

Oil is cheap. Do another oil change and try to fix them out of the drain hole. I don’t know if I would go as far as removing the 3rd member but definitely give it a shot through the drain hole at least.


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If it were me, gear oil is cheap. Do another drain and fill for piece of mind.

Drain and fish it out. It will probably come out while draining it. That said, it will not cause any problems.

So I did a drain and fill today to try to find the plastic bits. Unfortunately, none came out during the drain, and I didn't see any shards of black plastic in the oil. I poked around inside the housing with a long ziptie for awhile, through both the drain hole and the fill hole, but could not tell definitively if there was any plastic piece inside. It's a little hard to maneuver the ziptie inside the housing, so the plastic bit might have been hiding some place that I couldn't reach.

I don't think the plastic would just dissolve in the gear oil, even if it was shredded by the gears first. I will just drive it and see if any problems develop.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The plastic won't dissolve in gear oil, otherwise it would have dissolved in the presence of the gear oil in the package.

However, the plastic is much softer that anything it will come in contact with in the axle, so I wouldn't worry yourself over it.

You might check into a cheap borescope to look around inside, such as this:

Amazon.com

Thanks, I have been looking into getting a borescope. I feel like it would have been useful to get a better view of the spider joint when pumping grease into the zerk. It would also have been useful to get a look at the obstruction (a fire-resistant mat?) on the passenger cabin side of the firewall when I was putting a wire through the firewall from the engine bay. And also to find nuts and bolts and washers dropped into various crevices by accident.