Rear diff fluid after 58k miles w/pics

Just changed my rear diff fluid, I was running Schaeffers 75w90 full synthetic. 58k miles on fluid, 234k on truck. I did tons of towing during this interval, and I'm pretty hard on my truck. Lots of offroading too. The fluid smelled just like it did whenever I poured it in, and didn't seem to change color much, the Schaeffers has a slight green tint to it from the bottle, which I can still distinguish. The magnet had fine particals on it, zero chunks. I took a sample to send to Blackstone, but after seeing how good the fluid looked and smelled, I'm certain it will be a waste of money.

I switched to High Performance Lubricants 75w90 for this interval.

 

nice

 

Is 58K about your normal change interval?

 

I got the truck with 172k on it, changed the fluid at 175k. I think the previous owner may have had it changed once or twice. I'd have to go through the service records.

I'll probably go 75k+ on this fill.

 

They have some really great lubricants, they also make the best grease I've ever used, and many other will attest to that.

What the hell, ill send the sample in this week, just for fun.

I switched to HPL because their oils are even better than Schaeffers ( and Amsoil) , and they have the best damn customer service, the owner is more than happy to talk oil with you. They made a special batch of 75w for my transfer case, tested it, made a special label, and just charged me gear oil price. You can't beat that with a stick.

 

My oils are good enough that I don't need to send them out often

 

What's this sending out of oil? I've got a 2015 with 83k... is there something special I need to do?

 

Sending it to Blackstone labs or another lab of your choice to get the oil analyzed, they test for wear metals, additive, and TAN and TBN if you want it, which tells you the acidity and how much additive your oil has left

 

Beat me to it by a minute!

 

Damn I had no clue!!!! I'll have to do that just for my own 2 cents! Good to hear from ya also brotha! Been a while.

 

Is there a sure fire interval to change out the diff fluids? Or is it more of a function of the 4x4 use?

 

The front diff isn't under load unless in 4x4, so the fluid doesn't really get much wear from normal driving since there isn't any pressure between gears, but most people change both at the same time because it's easier to document. I didn't change my front diff fluid yet because I'm restoring a drill press and don't have the shop space.

If you want to get a good idea of how long your diff fluid will last, take a sample from the fill plug and send it to Blackstone, just refill whatever you take out. They'll tell you if it's still good to run or not, and give you a mileage at which to send another sample for testing. I'll post one of my random UOAs so you can get an idea.

 

Special batch??

Tell us some about the special needs.

 

The 14-21 tundras require 75w for the transfer case

 

Job is still kicking my ass and baby number 3 is on the way... I'll try not to hijack this dudes post lol

 

You're telling me. Life is awesome though!

I think testing it wouldn't hurt. I've had it since it had 3 miles on it so anything that could be wrong with it would be my own damn fault. I didn't even know the testing was available... this site helps with odds and ends with stuff like that.

 

@Green Thunder

 

I'm gonna be curious about the next report. I might sample it at 50k, so gimme a couple years lol

 

Interesting. Guess the additive pack held up and the wear is about double the average. Which makes sense given the average sample is half as many miles.