Diff Oil Change VP Berlina.

[RegRegan]

Can anyone please help/direct me to what i have to do to change the diff oil in my VP. What is the reccomended oil and what i need to do. If you are able to help it would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers Reg.

[kniever]

if you have irs then you just undo the middle very bottom bolt to drain and about halfway up that backing you will see a bigger bolt near the centre for re-filling.

if you have a live axle setup then the best way is to take the whole back off it to drain and replace with a new gasket and it has a rubber plug near the middle which you use for refilling.

on both setup's you fill until the fluid is coming back out of the whole you are filling from.

[RegRegan]

thanks for your help Kniever it is greatly appreciated. Just a couple more things, how do i tell ff i have an IRS and what type of fluid do i use?

[VrWagz1]

I have live axle but i dont take the back plate off, its way too much effort. Just buy a little hand pump from the auto shop and pump the oil out and then you use it the other way round to pump the new oil in. If you have a LSD be sure to use proper LSD oil which is slightly more expensive. You should find what oil it is in your owners manual.

When you buy the oil its easier to just ask at the counter for the right oil, or if you go to somwhere like super crap you'll have to look up your model in one of their books they got hanging in the isles.

This pic shows IRS on the left, notice the rubber boot on side of the diff housing. On the right is a solid axle setup.


Note: These arnt commodore rear ends, for display purposes only

[RegRegan]

VR Wagz you are a dead set legend! I have a solid axle set up on the VP. the IRS looks so much more complicated, thanks heaps for your time and patience. i new to the commodore maintence world. With the solid axle set up do i need to replace the gaskets and seals or can i just bleed it and refill?

[dirt drifter]

just bleed and refill, the drain point is the very bottom backing plate bolt, the fill point is the rubber bung halfway up. if u cant find a hand pump to get the oil in what gets me out of trouble is....

undo the panhard rod off the diff (the big bar running from car body to diff) pull it down to give yourself some room to work. then cut the top half off a 1.25L coke bottle and stick a hose in the end that is skinny enough to fit inside the diff's fill hole. this is your funnel. then using the bottom half of that coke bottle, put oil in it and tip down the funnel. go easy it will take a while to drain thru into the diff.

i'm going to state the bleeding obvious here, this is way easier if its on a hoist. its definately doable if its on the ground jacked up on axle stands its just the whole holding the funnel, pouring the oil while lying under the car without covering yourself in oil part that isn't much fun. best of luck with it.