Switch to Synthetic Differential oil?

[GTO52]

I want to switch to synthetic differential oil on my Toyota pick up but a mechanic I spoke to said I should drain the mineral oil and then top it say half up with synthetic drive it around the block and then drain it to get all the mineral oil out and refill with synthetic.
Is this necessary surely I can just drain it and refill it with the new synthetic oil?

 

[Bgallagher]

Drain it and fill it with a cheap dino. Run it for a week and then drain it and refill with synthetic. The cheap dino will flush out a lot of the crud etc. that a simple drain can't do.

 

[Astro14]

Sounds like your mechanic thinks the two are incompatible...they're not, but the short run to clean it up is a good idea if it's been a long, long time since you've changed it...

 

[Kuato]

Synthetic is fully compatible with dino. If Toyota says to change the fluid, then just change it. If they say to flush, rinse with cheap for a week, or whatever, then do that.

 

[Jim Allen]

A drain will get 99.5 percent of the old oil if you just let it drain for a while.

Here's a tip... get it good and hot first. Flows better then and drains better, plus any oxidation byproducts are probably in their "soft" form so you will get more of them to drain out rather than be stuck to cast iron. Takes about 15 miles of high speed driving to get the axle up to temp. The faster you go, the hotter it will get and vice versa. A slow roll around town won't do it. Fifteen minutes on the freeway is cheaper than a second drain & fill. Hot drain... you'll be fine!

 

[Bluestream]

^^^^What Jim said. No need to flush anything

 

[Rand]

is it the first time its been changed?

if so you might want to remove the cover and clean out all the break-in crud/sludge

my ranger had silver paste junk on everything after the first 30000 miles.

took it apart.. cleaned it with some lintfree towels and parts cleaner. sprayed it down with some light oil to remove any cleaner traces wiped out again.. then resealed and filled with syn 75w90(I used redline)


As far as best use of time.. the hot drain and refill is the easiest way that works best.

 

[GTO52]

I change the diff oil every 40000km, I will take it for a long drive before draining. Thanks

 

[MetalSlug]

that would be really good ideal, for you its , since almost all toyota offer drain and fill plug, that made the job so much easy. I wish mine is

.

 

[artificialist]

I prefer the method of draining the factory fill, running cheap oil for a brief period of time, and then using premium fluid.

When you drain the factory fill, there will still be plenty of iron slime left behind.

That is why I drained my factory fill at 9,600 miles, and will again do the job at 14,600 miles

 

[Warstud]

To much time and money wasted doing a dino flush IMO...do what Rand said ....get some parts cleaner/carb cleaner and rinse it out...then put in the syn.

 

[JZiggy]

The diffs in your Yotas are very stout anyway and don't need to be babied. They'll outlast the rest of the vehicle especially with a high quality lube.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Warstud
To much time and money wasted doing a dino flush IMO...do what Rand said ....get some parts cleaner/carb cleaner and rinse it out...then put in the syn.

That only works well when there is a differential oil pan/cover that you can remove.

Most Toyota vehicles do not have one.

 

[BISCUT]

Originally Posted By: Rand
is it the first time its been changed?

if so you might want to remove the cover and clean out all the break-in crud/sludge

my ranger had silver paste junk on everything after the first 30000 miles.

took it apart.. cleaned it with some lintfree towels and parts cleaner. sprayed it down with some light oil to remove any cleaner traces wiped out again.. then resealed and filled with syn 75w90(I used redline)


As far as best use of time.. the hot drain and refill is the easiest way that works best.


Same with wifes 2010 Armada at 30k. Fluid was fine but plenty of pasty gunk on the magnet.