Diff Filler bolt???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

blackmax

blackmax

New member
Are you kidding me!!!?? I, like an idiot, drained the oil out first, then tried to remove the filler plug. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice product you have there TOYota. What a joke.

I've tried:

Breaker bar- no luck
Impact wrench for 2 hours- nothing
Soak in PB blaster for 1 hour then impact wrench- nothing
heat until RED hot then impact wrench- nothin

Now the bolt is finally rounded. Nice product there!! Top Notch!!

Now I have to have my '03 4runner towed in order to have the dif bolt removed. I'm sure this willl ened up being a $500+ bolt removal. Freaking unfreaking real. :behead:
 
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blackmax said:
Are you kidding me!!!?? I, like an idiot, drained the oil out first, then tried to remove the filler plug. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice product you have there TOYota. What a joke.

I've tried:

Breaker bar- no luck
Impact wrench for 2 hours- nothing
Soak in PB blaster for 1 hour then impact wrench- nothing
heat until RED hot then impact wrench- nothin

Now the bolt is finally rounded. Nice product there!! Top Notch!!

Now I have to have my '03 4runner towed in order to have the dif bolt removed. I'm sure this willl ened up being a $500+ bolt removal. Freaking unfreaking real. :behead:
Click to expand...

did you try a hand torque wrench? I did both bolts when I changed my rear diff fluid. is it the front one (if 4x4) or the rear? sorry to hear what happened.
 
Rear. It's 110% f'd. I guess I'll simply drill a new hole in the dif. and tap it out to 1/2"......done. Or, can anyone think of why that could be problematic? Why can't I just drill a 1/2" hole next to the current fill plug, tap it to 1/2" and then fill the pumpkin with 90 weight?

Or......if there an air gap anywhere that can be used to fill the damn thing up? I swear, I'm about to unload a 45 into this thing. I'm sure some of you have been in the same frame of mind.
 
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Did you take a mini-sledge and a punch to it? Many times a couple of light to medium hits on the plug (like you were driving a nail) and then take the punch to the head of the bolt. Place near an outer edge and angled so that when you hit it the bolt will loosen.

As far as drilling a hole next to the plug, not a good idea. The metal is too thin. The plugs bolts into a reinforced area.


For this emergency click on the axle vent mod link in my sig. Remove the differential breather, measure the fluid (in the amount the manual says) and fill though the vent. It'll be slow. You'll want to warm the oil and have some small vinyl tubing.


May the force be with you...
:cheers:

FWIW there's two kinds of DIY mechanics. 1st is the group who have done exactly what you did (drain first) and the 2nd group is those who lie and claim they've never done the same thing or some equally silly thing.
 
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Hey, welcome to the forums!!

Yeah that sucks that that happened to you. Before I did my drain, I checked on this site first and they said with all drain and fills when you first do them is to make sure you can take the filler plug out first! It was hell getting mine off, but I did! The best thing to use is a smaller size socket in english and hammer it on and make sure it is all the way on, and then use a large breaker bar and hit the breaker bar with a hammer. I have had many bolts do this to me and I have not lost to one yet. Also try tightening it a hair and then hitting it back to loosen it if you have not done these things. I think a 6 point Socket works best in these situations. Good Luck!
 
Shredded my filler bolt and spend 100 bucks to have a local mechanic put heat to the rear and front diff filler bolts.

If you can take out the diff bolts and have them replaced with something of real size early on, you won't experience a problem.

Use some synthetic gear lube and don't worry about it for the next 60K miles.

I feel your pain man.
 
You should have just rolled the car over on its roof and used the drain plug to fill it.









Just kidding....I can tell you are pissed, so I probably shouldn't joke, but your post was kinda funny with how pissed you are and everything. I pictured someone hammering away on the fill bolt with an impact wrench for 2 hours.

Back in the day when I worked on cars, one of my mechanic buddies borrowed my Ingersol Rand impact wrench. At the time it was the strongest you could buy with 650 lb. ft. of torque in reverse. My buddy couldn't get the lug nuts off an old Alfa Romeo. He wanted to borrow my gun to see if it would get them off. Well, he turned it up to max torque and started going to town. I listened at the gun kept hammering until it finally broke them free (or so I thought), only to find out that the gun twisted the entire wheel stud until in snapped. Then he moved on to the next one and did the same thing. Only then did he realize that those old Alpha Romeos had reverse threaded lugs on one side! LOL.
 
CJ3Flyr said:
For this emergency click on the axle vent mod link in my sig. Remove the differential breather, measure the fluid (in the amount the manual says) and fill though the vent. It'll be slow. You'll want to warm the oil and have some small vinyl tubing.


.
Click to expand...


Ah, you beat me to it. I was just going to suggest the same thing. I'm not sure how small the hole is for the vent, but it should work even if it takes a while.
 
Q

Jed said:
Ah, you beat me to it. I was just going to suggest the same thing. I'm not sure how small the hole is for the vent, but it should work even if it takes a while.
Click to expand...

So...I've tried the vent hole (on top of the dif...right?). I unscrewed the thing, then used an oil "syringe" to squirt 90 weight into the hole. Boy, I am not even sure anything is going in there. More than 1 oz per hour and it seems to clog up and just flow out, but miss the hole. I understand "slow" but I'm not sure this is even possible for anything heavier than water. Maybe I'll get a second wind and heat the oil to 150 degrees or so.

This is an absolute, total, complete mess. Why on earth would a stupid, punk little filler plug ever cause a problem? It can't vibrate loose, ever. Even if it could, nothing would ever come out!!! This is literally engineered by someone with an 80 IQ. NO question about it.

Here's an idea: let's torque gas caps down to 400 ft/lbs.....just in case. I mean, you can't be too careful......:redbrick:
 
blackmax said:
This is an absolute, total, complete mess. Why on earth would a stupid, punk little filler plug ever cause a problem? It can't vibrate loose, ever. Even if it could, nothing would ever come out!!! This is literally engineered by someone with an 80 IQ. NO question about it.

Here's an idea: let's torque gas caps down to 400 ft/lbs.....just in case. I mean, you can't be too careful......:redbrick:
Click to expand...

LMAO!!!! That was funny man!!! Yeah, it makes you wonder what people are thinking...... wait.....as Hulk Hogan says, "They aren't thinkin' Bruthuur!!!:rockthrow:
 
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what if I open the drain plug, and then us a MAP/O2 torch to heat the bolt to just below where it literally melts. Then, us whatever is left of the bolt with the impact wrench to try to bust it loose? I know the oil is flamable, but if the bottom plug is open, I can't think of any real danger?

Any thoughts? This is a disaster........and also my last TOYota.
 
blackmax said:
what if I open the drain plug, and then us a MAP/O2 torch to heat the bolt to just below where it literally melts. Then, us whatever is left of the bolt with the impact wrench to try to bust it loose? I know the oil is flamable, but if the bottom plug is open, I can't think of any real danger?

Any thoughts? This is a disaster........and also my last TOYota.
Click to expand...

I'm not a real technical guy like Chris, but doesn't heat expand? So wouldn't that make the bolt harder to take out? Also if it melts, couldn't you risk 'welding' the bolt in place?

As far as the breather route, its been awhile since I've done that mod, but walmart has this pretty cool capped funnel with measuring lines on it. It also has a about 2ft of tubing on it with a little nozzle at the end. If you remove the spare you have a crap ton of space to lie under there, and you can see if its actually accepting oil or not.

And I had to do some filling with a rubber hose on the front dif because I didn't have the pump and it was a huge pain. And some of those bolts I swear are torqued on by a gorilla with a 12 ft wrench.
 
simple said:
I'm not a real technical guy like Chris, but doesn't heat expand? So wouldn't that make the bolt harder to take out? Also if it melts, couldn't you risk 'welding' the bolt in place?

As far as the breather route, its been awhile since I've done that mod, but walmart has this pretty cool capped funnel with measuring lines on it. It also has a about 2ft of tubing on it with a little nozzle at the end. If you remove the spare you have a crap ton of space to lie under there, and you can see if its actually accepting oil or not.

And I had to do some filling with a rubber hose on the front dif because I didn't have the pump and it was a huge pain. And some of those bolts I swear are torqued on by a gorilla with a 12 ft wrench.
Click to expand...

Good point. I'd prob. be better off spraying with freon. But at this point, ti's too late. Gotta love how TOYota has a bolt with a head that's 1/8" deep. Yea......that won't round off or anything....naaaaaw.

This piece of garbage is toast. I'll just drive it to a mechanic in the AM, and let them do what ever it is they do. If they can't get the bolt out.....and I'm 90% sure it can't be done, I'll roll the piece of garbage into a pond. Problem solved I guess.
 
simple said:
....but doesn't heat expand? So wouldn't that make the bolt harder to take out? Also if it melts, couldn't you risk 'welding' the bolt in place?
Click to expand...

Great point. I just assumed the 'heating the bolt' meant heating in a circular motion around the outside perimeter of the bolt head. Simple, you're exactly right, the goal would be to heat the 'nut' which in this case is the reinforced part of the back of the diff where the plug goes in.
:cheers:
 
Sad but FUNNY story or the comments. reminds me of when my cuzin was 18, had his mustang, first car and he decided on his own to change the oil(which he never did before, ever). He never asked someone or bought the car bible but did change the oil. OOOPS someone forgot to tell him there were 2 oil drain bolts - only did one but was sure to put all the oil in. BAM ZANG BOOOMM BLOWN HEAD GASKET (and then some) and steam clean the engine bay.
 
wow that sucks... hope they get it off ok. So I guess you never opened it up in 7yrs? Whenever you do the blowtorch method, you need someone to be slowly moving the nut or bolt while it's still being heated. It was the only way my brother and I were able to take off my oem exhaust without cutting up the pipes. If you do get the bolt off, maybe put some antiseize on it like moly-lube so it won't get stuck again.
 
Update

Update: Okay, well it never came off. In fact, there is 100% no way it ever will or ever could come off. I tried everything. impact wrench for hours. PB Blaster overnight. Map/O2 torch heating. Chiseling until the bolt sheered off in two spots. Drilled it out and inserted a giant screwdriver/breaker bar, and tried turning with a wrench and floor jack.....500 pounds of pressure and the breaker bar started twisting. NO WAY THIS IS EVER COMING OUT, short of a very very good weld job on a larger nut, and maybe using a 4' breaker bar. Even then....I think the welds will simply snap.

Gotta love also how tiny the bolt surface area is. Pure genius how it can only handle about 60 ft/lbs of pressure before the bolt shreds anyway. Flipping absolute garbage in terms of design and engineering. Thanks Toyota!

What I did (please someone chime in if you see something that's a potential problem):

1) I ended up drilling a 3/8" hole THROUGH (as in, I can see into the pumpkin now) the filler bolt itself.

2) I removed the drain plug, and pumped a pint or so Transmission Fluid, via tubing and pump, into the pumpkin. The point being to flush out any metal shavings that may have been in there.

3) I then replaced the drain plug, and pumped 3.2 qts of 80-90 weight oil into the pumpkin.

4) I cleaned the oily filler bolt, and the hole therein, with mineral spirits. I dried and then plugged the hole with some JB weld.

See any problem there? I mean, this should get me 20-40k miles no problem right?? Then, I can have someone see about some other method of fixing the issue, whether that be welding a big nut onto what's left of the filler bolt, or ____________ (whatever secret trick mechanics have to deal with bs like this).:bash: ??
 
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Idea: Remove the cover from the diff and give it a more thouough cleaning, get a new gasket and new bolt then put back together? I'd be fearful of still having metal shavings even though you did say you flushed it. More work but any shavings will really redrum ur diff.
 
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