I was looking to have both my front diff. and rear end serviced. Both drained of old oil and refilled with new.Only.

Dealership I contacted said they don't just drain the old oil and refill with new oil. They remove covers to clean and inspect gears and then seal both back up and refill with new oil. At the cost of $200.00 an axel. Anyone have this done? And if so, what was the cost.

 

Also, my thinking. Why would I want a perfectly good seal on my front diff. and rear end, opened up and risk having a new leak. If the old oil is not showing any metal contaminates or metal particles. Then why open them up? Drain the old oil and put in new oil only.

 

I think your thinking is correct. Most of the unaware populous never even replace diff fluid. I'm not recommending that at all of course, but on a newer vehicle I definitely don't see a reason to pull covers. Drain and fill.

 

My 2013 Owner's Manual is rather vague; it has: Inspect the front and rear axle fluid, change if using your vehicle for police, taxi, fleet, off-road or frequent trailer towing every 2 years or 20K miles. However, it doesn't state when to change under normal use (like a regular car) without towing.

The manual is more clear as to when to change transmission oil and filter, and transfer case fluid under normal driving - 12 years or 120K miles.

The dealerships have these "packages" that they offer to check the various fluids, brake linings and some other minor stuff for like $400.00, which I consider a rip-off.

I would like to find out what do they mean by "inspect"; remove the fill bolts on the differentials, stick your pinkie finger in the hole to check the level or open them up and flush and replace the fluids.

I would recommend to follow the owner's manual and have the dealer or the regional service manager clarify where the manual may sound confusing.

 

Also, I haven't checked whether the D's differentials have a fill plug and a drain plug. If no drain plug, then the differential cover needs to be removed to drain all the fluid.

 

I believe they have a drain plug as well, but that's a good point. The service guy was probably just going off a script making an assumption because most cars they service don't have a drain plug and either you gotta snake a vacuum in there (lol) or just pull the cover. So just make it clear that your truck has drain and fill plugs (confirm it does first, please) and ask them for a quote on that.

 

Thanks everyone. Everything said makes more sense to me.

 

The factory service manual lists a drain plug for the front and both versions of the rear differential. Same for both versions of the transfer case.

For those considering doing this service themselves, I highly recommend making sure you can get the fill plug loose before removing the drain plug.

-Rod

 

There is a drain and fill on both diffs and the transfer case. I did it myself in the garage. It took an hour or so to do all 3. Buy the oil and a fluid transfer pump and save yourself the 100+ bucks. I did the service at the recommended time per the manual (fleet driving, etc) and everything came out pretty new looking so the whole job wasn't really required.

Like SHO Rod said, make sure you can loosen the fill plug first before the drain plug.

 

I have also changed all of mine in the garage, not a bad job. I agree with others above that you take the fill plug loose first, and you will also need the fluid pump. Most can be had for about 10 bucks. The days of squeezing the crap out of the jug to refill are over with these newer vehicles. I know my 2011 R/T has a Mercedes/ZF stamp on the case and the fluid Mother Mopar uses is an odd weight. Amsoil was close and assured me it was fine, but with the lifetime warranty I decided to pay Mopar's stupid crazy price per bottle and use that as to not give them any excuse for issues down the road. The fluid I pulled out looked like new and broke my heart. I will say that the new fluid in the X-fer case fixed my 10 MPH thump that I had intermittently, but has since returned. I doubt they will pull the cover, if anything they would spray brake cleaner in it and let it drain, then refill. I would save the money and DIY. The only other thing is the plugs are an odd size hex, I searched with the google machine and found the correct size, so make sure you have that prior to tackling the job. Hope this helps!