Rear Diff & Transfer oil change question - HELP

[General Jackson]

I have 54K on my 07' FJC and I've been doing a lot of stuff that I think the previous owner had not done yet. I followed the procedure on the forum to do the gear oil changes and discovered some concerning things when doing them.

1) The gear oil on the rear axle was grayish black. I expected this because everyone on the forum said their oil was too. I did not have a ton of metal shavings, so that is good. I used Amsoil 75W90 synthetic.

2) When I drained the transfer case, the oil was clean. I was surprised that a big splash of oil came out of the fill plug at me. Is that normal? I filled it sorta high, because I felt like maybe I wasn't on perfectly level ground even though my inclometer was showing that I was pretty flat, but not perfect. Does this matter if I'm a little over full? I used Amsoil 75W90 syn on the transfer case too.

3) I located about 3 grease fittings on each shaft and gave them all 2 punps. Does anyone have a link that shows me where all of grease points are on an FJC?

4) My power steering, brake & radiator fluids are a bit low. I suppose this is normal. Fluids look clean. Do you think I should just top them all off?

Thanks so much for the help! This is an awesome forum.

Andrew

 

[1911]

1. Yep, you are OK there.

2. No it doesn't matter to be a little over full.

3. You found them all; one on each u-joint and one on each slip yoke. There is a thread with photos of these on the blue forum, but if you found all three on both drive shafts then you already found them all.

4. Yes.

 

[General Jackson]

1. Yep, you are OK there.

2. No it doesn't matter to be a little over full.

3. You found them all; one on each u-joint and one on each slip yoke. There is a thread with photos of these on the blue forum, but if you found all three on both drive shafts then you already found them all.

4. Yes.

Thanks so much! I feel better already. Now I just need to tackle the front axle.

 

[steven4mc]

Side note on "topping off" the brake fluid, observe the limit marks.

 

[bigeee]

As far as topping off your coolant goes, make sure you buy the correct color coolant from the dealership. It'll cost you quite a bit more money, but your aluminum engine will thank you for it. I've had a lot of experiences with excessive corrosion and premature water pump failures from mixing coolant. Never ran into that problem with an fjc, but I have with many other Toyota/Lexus products. Also I wouldn't top off the brake fluid. The fluid level drops when the brake pads wear due to the caliper piston taking up less space inside the caliper. The only time you want to top off your brake fluid is if it is at the min line. Otherwise when you replace your brake pads and push the pistons back in, you'll have an overflow mess on your hands.

 

[General Jackson]

As far as topping off your coolant goes, make sure you buy the correct color coolant from the dealership. It'll cost you quite a bit more money, but your aluminum engine will thank you for it. I've had a lot of experiences with excessive corrosion and premature water pump failures from mixing coolant. Never ran into that problem with an fjc, but I have with many other Toyota/Lexus products. Also I wouldn't top off the brake fluid. The fluid level drops when the brake pads wear due to the caliper piston taking up less space inside the caliper. The only time you want to top off your brake fluid is if it is at the min line. Otherwise when you replace your brake pads and push the pistons back in, you'll have an overflow mess on your hands.

Thank you for the response. This was helpful advice!