How does everyone else do their Differential fluid change themselves?

I was thinking of jacking up the rear of the car, putting a cat pan under the Differential plug area, remove Diff bolt, lower rear of car and then raise front of car to drain the diff fluid.

Then you just have to jack the rear up one more time to put fluid back in and put bolt back on....will this work or is there an easier way?

I've already checked the forums with the "search" feature and not so much appeared.

straight from the service manual...

straight from the service manual...


Thanks, but, that would only work if I had a way to lift the entire car, and I don't:(

I have not done this yet, but I dont think you need to jack the front of the car.

The instructions I've read always say lift full car, meaning the car is level when it drains, so I think you can skip the front lift, just lift, unplug, lower, drain, lift, refill.

Just a thought... you may want to wait to hear from someone whose done it

I know that is the ideal way (to lift entire car); however, I am looking for an alternate method to do this, as I do not have access to a full car lift.

Thanks for the reply, though!

you want to keep the car as level as possible when draining fluids. If you don't have access to a lift hopefully you have a flat garage or driveway floor.

I see nothing wrong with your original plan. Or even just letting the rear down to level.

This is on a 2008? Why change so soon? Not like engine oil that gets destroyed by gases.

Some general thoughts; rear is an open diff right? No limited slip friction modifiers necessary? While you are in there check to see if one of the plugs has a magnet on it, probably the drain plug. If not I would investigate ways to add a magnet to trap larger steel particles and act as a filter.

When I did my change on my sti I just put my car on 4 jack stands but if you dont have 4 jack stands then I would say just jack up the rear loosen the drain plug and the filler plug then drop the car and just get under and finish taking the drain plug out, drain wipe off the small particles of steel because the drain plug is magnatized then put back in. Take off the filler plug that you already loosened and fill untill you see a little strean comming out of the filler hole, put filler plug back in and jack the car back up in the rear and torque to the spec. hope this helps by the way filling is a PITA I used a little squeeze bottle good luck.

What about the transmission, is that a pain? I hear some audi cars have to remove the transmission to change its fluid, hope its not like that.

i just change my trans and diff very easy the front you need a t-70 the rear is a big wrench make sure u buy a t70 i buoght a t60 did not fit

ps any one need help i live in fremont

Changing your differential fluid regularly will prolong the
life of your differential.
I never have time so I have my local Subaru dealership change
my differential fluid once every year.

I have three jacks. It makes things much easier. When the fluid is changed make sure the car's just been run. You want the fluid hot or all the sludge/particles settle to the bottom and won't drain out.

tranny fluid change is just as easy as the differential its just one drain plug it took awile to get all of the fluid out put the plug back in and fill fron the top of the tranny its as simple as that.