Ready for Subaru front & rear differential change

[Wheel]

Most Subarus have a plug in the trunk area that you can remove to run a hose down to the rear diff. If not - You can get a cheap hand pump that fits on a gear oil bottle. I use the one that is made for a boats lower unit. You get less overflow and mess with the pump.

Make sure the upper (fill and check) plug comes out before you pull the drain one....also check beforehand if your diff uses a gasket. Subaru has a couple different rear diffs - not all are NPT.

 

[Cooper]

Your Forester rear diff is super easy to change out. You need a fluid pump though. A cheap hand pump works fine. There is a fill and drain plug. It uses a 13mm square socket. Get it at Harbor Freight. It comes in a set of brake/diff sockets. Also need a torque wrench. 36.9 is the setting for mine. The rear used less than a quart. The front used 1.5 quarts. I used Amsoil Severe Gear 75w90. You really don't need to seal the threads IMHO. Let me reiterate this...YOU HAVE TO USE A HAND PUMP. All will be well. Very easy job for the rear. The front is a little harder but not bad. Less than an hour total job for the front and rear diffs. Just make sure to do it regularly. Mine looked HORRIBLE at 15k miles.

 

[BHopkins]

Originally Posted By: Cooper
All will be well. Very easy job for the rear. The front is a little harder but not bad. Less than an hour total job for the front and rear diffs. Just make sure to do it regularly. Mine looked HORRIBLE at 15k miles.


I have heard from many that the first change always looks bad. So, then, how frequently do most Subaru owners change differential fluid? My Outback owners manual only calls to inspect the fluid every 30k miles. No recommendation of change frequency. Would a recommended frequency be any different on the Outback? Or is the Outback differentials the same as Forester?

 

[Cooper]

Because of how bad it looked, I am changing mine at 15k, 30k and every 30k after that. I am using Amsoil Severe Gear because I have heard good things about it here.

I believe they are the same differentials in the rear. I know my front diff is an updated diff for 2014.

The Haynes manual for mine has the old diff and the new diff listed as used in the 2014 Forester. Mine just happens to have the new one. It doesn't have the fill up top via a vent hose. It has a check on the bottom that you fill through. Yours has the fill via the vent up top and a check and drain on the bottom.

 

[Warstud]

Your gonna want one of these instead of a funnel.


http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Design-Mo...ords=fluid+pump

 

[BHopkins]

Or one of these. I like this design, since it fits right on most gear oil bottles. Seems it would be much less messy.

http://www.amazon.com/Custom-Accessories...s=gear+oil+pump

 

[Phishin]

Well, I was itching to get this done and with a snow storm coming tonight, I decided to take into a respected tranny shop down the road from me.

Last night I dropped off the car and supplied him with 3 quarts of the Redline 75w90 and a T-70 Torx bit.

I also supplied him with 6 quarts of Genuine Subaru ATF-HP and a tube of Hondabond.

Shop just called and told me to pick up the car. Bill is $105 for the diff's to be drained and filled and the tranny pan to be removed, cleaned out, and re-installed. I'm sure this is where most of the time was spend, because cleaning up that old silicon gasket material is a PITA.

I think it was money well spent. I could have done the diff's myself in another month, but I wanted the tranny pan to be cleaned out so I can now just do my Drain and Fill's from here on out.

 

[2002 Maxima SE]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
Well, I was itching to get this done and with a snow storm coming tonight, I decided to take into a respected tranny shop down the road from me.

Last night I dropped off the car and supplied him with 3 quarts of the Redline 75w90 and a T-70 Torx bit.

I also supplied him with 6 quarts of Genuine Subaru ATF-HP and a tube of Hondabond.

Shop just called and told me to pick up the car. Bill is $105 for the diff's to be drained and filled and the tranny pan to be removed, cleaned out, and re-installed. I'm sure this is where most of the time was spend, because cleaning up that old silicon gasket material is a PITA.

I think it was money well spent. I could have done the diff's myself in another month, but I wanted the tranny pan to be cleaned out so I can now just do my Drain and Fill's from here on out.


Did you change the ATF filter? Our 2004 XT has an external oil type filter (spin on) that I change with every ATF change. I was warned by the members on subaruforester.org that the filter is not a regular oil filter.

 

[Wheel]

If it has a 4eat, Subaru dropped the external filter from it in 2009. They had it on from 98 to 08.