vs diff oil strange colour.

[alan smithy]

hi all, just thought i'd check diff after 4 years.(ok i am a bit slack) level was ok but it was a yellow colour and frothy.it was warm so does that account for it being frothy?
i guess bottom centre bolt is a drain plug. is it normal or should i drain & refill?
thanks all for any response.

[VK SL 3800]

A VS you have to remove the whole cover plate to drain (that non IRS), its normal to get a little frothy but should only be a little bit on top of the oil. Yellow is a strange colour, should be a golden (ish) colour when new and will slowly get browner and blacker as it ages and gets contaminated. I would suggest you change it just to be on the safe side, make sure you purchase a Hypoid compatible oil other wise you get extreme frothing and then poor diff lubrication resulting in failure. Pretty sure they take 80w-90 for general use or 80w-140 for heavy duty.

[VrWagz1]

thats not right unless its some sort of wierd super oil. Unfortunatly the bottom bolt is not a drain, you need to loosen all the cover bolts and pop the cover off. However you need new gasket and everything then. Best way is to go to an auto store and buy a little hand pump and pump the old oil out through the filler hole, then you can use the same pump to pump it back in, as its a bit hard with a funnel.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Sounds like it has had water in it if it went yellow and frothy. Check the teeth to see if they are pitted.