First sign of trouble, a gorilla tightened the fill plug on. I tried a 16" extension with no luck. I finally dropped the spare and with some heat and a impact gun I got it to break loose. The only way I can describe the crush washer is what a spark plug washer would look like if you managed to tightened it to 100 ft pounds. Good news is that the drain plug had just a thin film of sludge on it. Now for the weird part the gear lube, if you could call it that, looked like ATF, and not much heavier. What do you think that's about? The 85/90 GL-5 that I refilled it with looks and feels nothing like what came out. Opinion?
Rear diff lube change update
- Thread starter 4SKIN
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Devbot
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How long have you owned the car/what mileage is it? Possible someone has previously put in a thinner oil, I've never seen gear oil broken down to the point it's the viscosity of ATF but I suppose it could happen. Gear oil smells strongly of sulphur so if it made you gag that would've been a good indication of what it is
About 6 years 1999 base 175K, and no it didn't smell like what I put in. But whatever it is it seemed to work OK. Very little sludge and no metal flakes The only thing I could think of is that was LS lube, or an additive, but I'm pretty sure mine does not have LS.
Spiker Engineering
official vendor
It sounds to me like someone did a drain/refill after you put in the 85/90 GL-5, and put in the wrong fluid. Unless you were the "gorilla" who tightened the fill plug.
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