Rear Differential Fluid Change

[Crashmaster]

I am one of those people who believe that the first fluid changes should come early. I base this on the fact that:
1) Dirt and lint from the factory that might have been left inside.
2) When the gears and other components first get used a bit, there has to be some initial wear and now metal pieces in the fluid.
3) The PDF (Pre Delivery Inspection), often the dealership technician will get lazy and just check the boxes on the form claiming they checked this fluid level, when in fact they did not.
4) Allows you to add a magnetic drain plug

I changed the rear differential fluid this weekend. I took a few pictures to show you all how easy it was.


The attached pictures show the rear differential. The first picture shows the fill plug, and the other picture shows the actual drain plug. To remove these plugs just use a 3/8 inch ratchet. No socket required.

[Crashmaster]

Next, remove the drain plugs. When you remove the lower plug, less than 1 quart of fluid will come out.

[Crashmaster]

Once all the fluid has come out, put in your new magnetic drain plug. Here are a few pictures of the original drain plug and the new magnetic drain plug. Make sure you put the magnetic drain plug in the drain hole and not the fill hole. This particular plug requires the use of a 17 mm wrench or socket.

[Crashmaster]

Honda recommends that you ONLY use ‘Honda Dual Pump Fluid II’. I don’t know exactly what this fluid is, but I’m not going to chance any problem with using anything different than what Honda recommends. I purchased 4 quarts from a Honda dealer on Ebay. From best I can remember, it was about $10 per quart. I added a little spout with a hose to insert the fluid into the differential to avoid spillage. You can find this same information in your owner’s manual on the Service Information Summary page, which is the page right after the index in the back of the manual.


Overall, this job took about 20 minutes. The majority of the time was just waiting for all the fluid to drain out. Tools required was just a simple 3/8 inch ratchet and a 17 mm wrench for the new drain plug.

Sorry for the poor'ish quality photography. All pictures were taken with my cell phone camera.

[sjdslm17]

You said you drained less than 1 Qt. But How much did you put in? The spec sheet says to add 1.3 Qt.

[combscoach]

As always...great post!
How did the old oil look, and how many miles do you have on it?