How to top up the diff oil on a Land Rover
Being a bit bored the other day, I would thought I would check out the diff oil levels (as you do!) on the Land Rover 110. Its a simple job that takes 5-10 minutes, so I thought it would make a good blog post, so here it is!
About the diff oil
First thing is to make sure you have the new oil for topping up the diff. You need EP80/90 gear oil – EP stands for Extreme Pressure – it has to put up with the diff gears rotating and meshing together at speed – so it’s the same stuff that’s used in the Land Rover transfer box. You can buy the EP80/90 from any good motor factors, usually comes in 1 litre top up bottles (like I bought) or a 5 litre can.
Topping up the diff oil on a Land Rover
So now you have your oil sorted, take a look at the photo on the right, this is the location of the filler plug/level hole on the rear salisbury axle on my Land Rover.
Other Land Rover axles are the same, the filler plug is easy to spot on the front and rear axles of any Land Rover.
The hole is designed to fit the square drive of a normal half inch socket set, and its as simple as slotting the ratchet or t-bar into place in the filler plug and undoing it!
Level check: Take care when undoing the plug, as if your diff oil level is correct, it will start dribbling out of the hole. If this is the case, and the oil looks in good condition, you can just replace the plug – no topping up necessary!
Topping up: If you do need to top it up, all you need to do is to pour the new oil in via the hole using the tube which comes attached to your new bottle of oil. The correct level is reached when the oil starts dribbling out of the filler hole.
In my case both the diffs (front and rear) took about two thirds of the oil from my 1 litre bottle, so they were running a little low.
Once you’re at the right level, replace the filler plug and do it up. Wipe away any excess oil and you’re done!
The whole job took less than 10 minutes, and it is well worth doing, even if the level is correct, you get to check the condition of the oil – and the oil in my Land Rover’s differential didn’t look all that great, as shown in the photo above right!
So watch out for a blog post on completely replacing the diff oil in the near future!
thanks man, this was helpful.