Nice. What kind of lift do you have?

 

This 4 Metric ton lift is not mine, it's my friend's shop.

 

Initially, I asked Ford dealer to change the rear diff oil, but they said the oil in there doesn't need to be changed, and if the oil need to be drained, the rear diff need to come off.

 

Can you share the method you used to change the rear differential fluid? I didn't think it could be done with the differential still mounted in the car.

 

TomB985 Glad to share, you will need:
* What ever to raise the car up safely.
* Basic hand tool to remove the rear diff plastic cover.
* A low profile 3/8" square wrench, we cut off the square part of the 3/8" breaker bar and weld a handle onto it, I believe the clearance between the rear diff and the frame is 3/4 or 1", so this wrench need to fit in there.
* A fluid vacuum pump, we use something like the photo attached below, you can use a break bleeding pump, or a used shampoo bottle pump if you want.
- we attached the pump's hose to a curve brass tube, we measured the dimension of the rear diff and bend the brass tube to length so it reach the bottom of the rear diff.
* A clean pump or squeeze bottle for refilling.


Notes:
- This is a pretty easy job once the tools are made correctly.
- We notice in several cars that Ford (Taiwan) fill the rear diff and PTU oil below the drain plug, so if you refill the same amount as you drained, it will be low, we always filled until it drain out at the plug, not sure if it is the case for Ford elsewhere.
- Make sure to put the car in neutral, hand brake off before lowering the car so the gear (might have moved) won't bind.

 

Thank you----this is all great info.

 

Is it possible to pump in thru the level plug and use that fluid to push out the old? I really don't want to try getting into the top of the rear diff.

 

I don’t think you can be sure you will have all new fluid in the rear diff even if you pump a gallon of new fluid into it with your suggestion.

 

oh those are some helpful pics, thank you. are they all of the top plug?

 

2013 Titanium rear differential fluid service?

Nearly at 90k miles on my 2013 Titanium, 2 liter ecoboost. Replaced the power transfer unit fluid,which was black. I bought fluid from local Ford dealer to also replace the rear diff fluid, but cannot see/figure out a way to actually remove either the fill or drain plug. The dealer parts guy even gave me a few printouts, and he put some notes on, but in my case, there is simply not enough clearance to maneuver tools and my hand, based on how it is constructed. I saw some guy on youtube talk about the 'war' he had with his, and he had to hand make a tool, which I am not really able to do. Has anyone serviced their rear diff and can you give me any tips on special tools or process? thanks much

 

Nearly at 90k miles on my 2013 Titanium, 2 liter ecoboost. Replaced the power transfer unit fluid,which was black. I bought fluid from local Ford dealer to also replace the rear diff fluid, but cannot see/figure out a way to actually remove either the fill or drain plug. The dealer parts guy even gave me a few printouts, and he put some notes on, but in my case, there is simply not enough clearance to maneuver tools and my hand, based on how it is constructed. I saw some guy on youtube talk about the 'war' he had with his, and he had to hand make a tool, which I am not really able to do. Has anyone serviced their rear diff and can you give me any tips on special tools or process? thanks much

I merged your thread with the thread provided by the member above. In the future a quick search of the forum would be a good idea.

 

Here you go. Post #11

https://www.fordescape.org/forum/engine-technical-discussion/109340-ptu-rear-diff-oil-change-2.html

 

Thank you, I am new to this forum, just joined today actually. So where did that torx bit come from?

 

I just did my rear diff.

I found the torx on top of the rear diff - forget that thing exists. Use the level plug.

I bought this on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V3X3NJS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then I ground down the face of the drive so that I could make it fit. I ended up taking off so much the locking ball fell out, but that made it narrow enough that I could get it into the level plug - without any modifications of the frame or excessive swearing.

After that I used a hose and sucker to suck out the old fluid, cleaned up the gunk on the magnet, and filled it back up.

The fluid didn't look too bad, but the level was low and I had some signs of mild leakage so I'm glad I put more in. 117k miles, took 20 minutes.

 

so I was going to try and do it last night, and put the torx in the level plug, the easiest to reach and it snapped. Not the torx, the torx feature in the plug. I'm so thrilled.

 

You mean the plug stripped out? I have noticed that the torx on our vehicles, especially the larger ones, seem to be very touchy as far as what fits in them. I have found that a torx plus bit fits in them a little better, sometimes. If its not the correct size or type that may be what happened. Those plugs are super tight from the factory, I do know that.

 

well I got those short torx and managed to get some of the goop out of there yesterday. dame out black with silver flecks in it, and the magnet on the plug was really covered with that stuff. Actually took a bit of work to get it all wiped off. I got about 50ml out of it and put in just a touch more than that of the new stuff. I'll probably do it a couple more times over the next few days. I was surprised it's actually not bad at all getting in there it just takes a lot of vacuum to get that sucked out.

based on the condition of this 'lifetime fluid' that was in there, I highly recommend doing this well before you reach 100k miles.

 

I believe gear lube is always black or dark gray from the bottle.?
The PTU synthetic fluid is almost clear with a yellow tint to it fresh out of the bottle.

 

either way it was friggin nasty.

so I did it again yesterday, figure I'll do it until it's clean(ish). I suggest driving around a bit first, it came out a bit easier. I got the tube in quite a ways and must've found the sweet spot I got 450ml (4.5 syringes) of old goo out and put new in. man it do take a while coming thru that tiny tube.

I do have one question. how much should I put in? since I can't get in that level plug that's toward the front of the car, can I put it in until it's just coming out of this plug? they look almost the same level. maybe wait until it's coming out and then pull a little bit out?

 

Got a stubby torx on order to get at the rear, but I did the PTU last night and the gear oil looked pretty good. It looks like the previous owner kept up with these fluid changes, which is a good sign. I'm curious as to what the rear diff oil looks like. Vehicle is a 2013 Titanium with 95K. I put in Redline lightweight shockproof, a high quality 75W-140 in the PTU. Given what I've read about the heat these things endure, and with only a 0.5 quarts to fill, I'll look to change it out every 15K.

 

Well the plug on the rear differential on my 2013 was not a T40 torx, it was a 5/16 hex fitting. After I realized the torx bit was too small I had no idea what the heck I was dealing with because there is no room to maneuver in there. I ended up using some play-doh from my neighbor's kid to make a mold and realized it was not a torx fitting at all. I cut a small piece off a 5/16 allen wrench and welded it to a 8mm box wrench I had. That sucker was in there tight, but I got it loose. I ran out of time, so I did not get a chance to check the oil and swap it out. I'm going to pick up a ratcheting 5/16 box wrench and make tool specifically for this job because it's a royal **** with the room you have to work. As others have stated, the top plug is useless. Why Ford put a plug on the top instead of the bottom is mind boggling.

 

Well, I didn't get the same plug off, I took the one off the rear of the unit. so I wonder if I can fill that up until it comes out since they're so close to the same level (both the rear plug and level plug are almost the same level anyway)

 

it is a dink

I have a 2014 FORD ESCAPE AWD 2.0L TURBO, 98,000km, there seems to be some confusion about the plugs on the 'rear' diff in this thread.
As far as i can tell there is 2 plugs that matter on this diff, the fill plug at the rear which in my case is a standard 3/8 ratchet square drive, and the level plug on the side (drivers side) which is a torx T40. Both are a complete ***ch to get out. You may need a torch to heat the housing to loosen the level plug, i used a 3/8 drive t40 torx bit with a 6" extension and i hammered it in there after blowing it out then i attached a ratchet and heated the housing and cracked it loose, i did not remove it completely, yet. I then used a fan belt tool 3/8 to 16mm adaptor which you can apply a wrench to to get the one at the rear out.

I stuffed the small hose from my brake bleed tool into the fill port on the rear and sucked out 400ml

I then refilled the diff with roughly 700ml of oil, and put the fill plug back in a few threads

I already had the vehicle safely jacked up so i disabled the traction control and ran the vehicle in gear for a few minutes at 60km/h

I then sucked out the rear diff again, recovering 400ml

I then pumped another 700ml into the diff (lucas oil 80w90)

I then waited a minute and finally removed the level plug on the side. Some oil drained out, maybe 200ml, i put the plug back in when it was dripping.

Apparently these diffs are factory under filled, so the roughly 400ml extra oil in there does not bother me. I just left it as it was at the dripping point of the level plug. I then put the rear fill plug in and tightened both plugs nice and snug and left it at that. Should be fine, at least it has clean oil, what came out was black!

 

well I"m unable to get that side level plug off. I wonder how 'overfull' I'll be if I fill up from the rear plug until I get fluid coming out of that.

 

I didn't realize there was a third plug...thanks for that tidbit of info. I may call it good and just be glad I can access that rear plug. I'm interested to see what I can suck out of there and judging where the level plug is just remove some fluid after it is filled.

 

so I did it for the fourth time over the weekend (when it wasn't friggin raining here in michigan) and it came out looking good. still dark in the syringe but much lighter in general. so I'm probably done for this year and won't touch it until spring next year.

 

I did my 2013 Titanium 2.0T 81,000 miles rear-diff today...the fill plug (no drain plug) was the 5/16th Allen style which I had to cut part off to allow clearnece to undo the bolt. I approached the plug from the top down as the rear cross frame has a lip reducing angle clearance. The magnet was FULL of sludge. I tried to extract as much fluid as I could with a brake bleeder vacuum pump and it was SO THICK and DARK.
Once I got to the point of no more fluid (diff-case does not allow for easy insertion of suction tube to the bottom..) I then pumped in 1 pint of NEW fluid till it slowly dripped out.
At some point I'll do the process again now that fresh NEW oil is mixing with the OLD fluid.

Clearly these are not sealed for life and need attention (and apparently are NOT filled to level from the factory)

 

I did my 2013 Titanium 2.0T 81,000 miles rear-diff today...the fill plug (no drain plug) was the 5/16th Allen style which I had to cut part off to allow clearnece to undo the bolt. I approached the plug from the top down as the rear cross frame has a lip reducing angle clearance. The magnet was FULL of sludge. I tried to extract as much fluid as I could with a brake bleeder vacuum pump and it was SO THICK and DARK.
Once I got to the point of no more fluid (diff-case does not allow for easy insertion of suction tube to the bottom..) I then pumped in 1 pint of NEW fluid till it slowly dripped out.
At some point I'll do the process again now that fresh NEW oil is mixing with the OLD fluid.

Clearly these are not sealed for life and need attention (and apparently are NOT filled to level from the factory)

Just to let you know, the proper fill level is 4 or 5 millimeters below the fill hole. If you filled it to the hole, don’t be surprised if you get some running out of your vent tube.

 

Is it the same oil for transfer case and rear differential?
946ml is enough for both?

The plug look's different like torx 40. It's like square one in european version, is it this one for oil change?

 

The fluid levels are in the owners manual. And no, they are not the same. Also, Ford changes the plugs all the time. One year it might be torx, next year it’s a square drive. Best thing to do is figure out what yours is.

 

Right thanks I have a look.

Is it possible to change oil in transfer case without this special vaccum pump?
(the plug is only on the bottom?)

 

Drain from the bottom and use one of these pump to fill from the side plug.

 

All right I was sure there is only bottom plug, sorry.
I have to see my dealer, in my owners manual it's info about only oil engine, gearbox etc.