Front diff fill leak

[camino70]

Hi all, new to the forum, so please forgive my ignorance and inferior search ability.

I went to replace most fluids yesterday with the help of the FAQ.

The front diff hex plugs were pretty mangled. I was able to get the fill plug out first, as suggested on the site (thanks!), but was unable to get the drain plug out for fear of causing unrecoverable damage. I just put the fill plug back in without a new gasket. I only went to the local Toyota dealer and got new diff plugs. When I got back under the truck the fill plug was leaking. Is this due to the gasket reuse (they were all beat)? Or do I need to reevaluate my process or ?

I got the drain plug out with a torx head and replaced both plugs and gaskets after refill, should I be good?

I also drained and replaced two quarters of atf. The drained fluid was pretty dark, but didn't smell bad, should I get it flushed? I feel like I'm missing something, the refill was harder than it should have been.

TIA,
Ron

 

[wpsfan]

I did the front / rear / transfer case / engine oil on Friday for the first time and the front was definitely the most difficult. If you are referring to the front diff, you probably feel like it was harder than it should've been since the others were so straight forward. I felt the same. I'm new to these things and no expert but if you replaced both plugs and gaskets I don't see why there would be an issue as long as it didn't leak out a bunch of fluid. When you filled it, did you feel it enough where fluid was barely seeping out? I found it difficult/innacurate to go by the #'s and just went by that method.

 

[SWUtah]

Just clean it up and recheck in a few days. Drain and fill is what Toyota recommends. Total exchange would obviously be better. Mine was drained and refilled at 100k and I had Slee Off-road do a full fluid exchange at around 120k miles. I would not trust just anyone including myself to do a full fluid exchange