Afternoon all,
A little background first... I have a 2010 RA I bought brand spanking new last April. It has 9270 miles, and I garage it over the winter by choice. I have been absolutely meticulous about maintenance, and run synthetic motor oil changing it every 3K or less. I have been watching some threads about changing fluids and decided I would start with the rear diff this weekend- easy enough and I can do it in short order.

Warmed up the car, pulled it into the garage and got started. Factory fluid that came out was still pretty clean, but the drain plug looked like it needed a shave! Got all the metal fragments off the magnet, but was surprised how much caking there was at the magnet base. Have you ever seen the caking under old valve covers? That was it.

When the last bit of fluid were draining out, I saw some blockage in the drain hole. Luckily, I bought 2 qts of Mobil 1 gear oil so I flushed them out with fresh fluid. I refilled the diff, ran around the block and drained it again- no more foreign objects just clean fluid. And yes, filled it to factory levels.

I am attaching the pic of this debris. It has some fibers to it, thinking this may be loose clutch material from the pack's that congealed together with sludge at the diff's bottom. It is not solid, and turns into paste and smears if you squeeze it- not like gasket material either.Strikes me as odd, since the car has so little mileage and I baby it when I'm driving.

Anyone run into similar debris when working on their differential? This makes me REALLY want to do the front, and spend the money to change the SST tranny fluid and filter as well.

 

Yes it's totally normal to have that debris on the drain plug when you do your first change.

 

Not sure what happened to my pic, it was there... Thanks for the reply, I honestly expected to have some material on the drain plug. All the components are new and they are still wearing together, its the clumps that concerned me.

 

 

Yeah, it's a bit unnerving if you're not ready for it. Looks like metal shrapnel until you squeeze it and it melts between your fingers

 

Thats exactley what it did... The clumps would smear between your fingers. I have been on the fence about taking the money and time to change the SST fluid and filter at 9K, but after this I ordered the parts last night!

 

Just had mine done on Friday, same thing, the plug was CAKED! At first they thought something was wrong, but it just rubbed away, no solid pieces, and its all good

 

pics of the drain and fill holes on the RalliArt?

 

Pictures are not showing up

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ld-change.html
3-seconds with the Search button

 

Thanks for the info. Except that is a picture of an EVO Rear diff. I was specifically looking for a picture of a Ralliart rear diff.

 

I knew the OE fluid was going to be terrible looking at 10,000 miles, so I changed the OE fluid with conventional Valvoline 80w90 gear oil.

I will put in full synthetic in next. I'm more interested in getting rid of most of the deposits before I fill it with synthetic gear oil.

Seeing that also motivated me to learn how to replace the fluid in the TC:SST

 

its hard finding stuff for the RA and not the Evo, i almost got real confused when i saw this pic: