how long does a room temp differential take to drain?

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Sep 23, 2017
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how long does a room temp diff take to drain? it has a drain plug at the very bottom so gravity should help
debating whether to let it drain over night or if i can do it within 10 mins all at once
 
After you pull the drain plug, let it flow out while you round up the replacement fluid, the tool you'll use to pump it back in, get a drink of water... If it's slowed to a drip by then, it's done (enough).

If you feel wasteful, pump in a 1/2 quart or more of new fluid with the drain plug still out to "flush" a little more out. Completely unnecessary though.
 
This is BiTOG! It's what we do!

total waste of money and bad for the environment No shop or paid mechanic at a “real” shop would ever do such a thing. It’s equivalent to pouring money down the drain. Just a huge waste.
 
No offense intended, but you have been posting a lot of threads lately. And a lot of those questions are extremely basic.

Perhaps you need to find someone local to work with you when doing any maintenance/repair work?

And purchasing a short-term subscription to factory service information will go a long way towards answering your questions.
 
Drive it a few minutes, pull the drain plug, go inside have cup of coffee, make a few calls, or do something else. Come back in half an hour and finish the job. Don't over think it.

Here's a helpful tip, pull the fill plug before the drain plug. The last thing you want to do is drain a differential, transfer case, or whatever and not be able to get the fill plug out to fill it and finish the job!
 
I only had one cup of coffee and wasn't sure what you were asking at first as this is the PCMO section.

You have an axle you need to drain and refill? Just drain it, go do something, re-install the plug, and fill.

For what it's worth, the last time I drained my rear axle in my Jeep, I had just broken the Detroit locker. I replaced it with a spare open case in the middle of the trail. I had emptied the gear oil into a sandwich bag, swap the diff, and then put the whole sandwich bag of gear oil back in the case and bolted on the cover. That took about a half hour, not including eating the sandwich.
 
10 minutes is plenty. Draining overnight might get you another 10-20cc, not worth the bother.
Definitely loosen the fill plug first -- don't get stuck with an empty case that you can't refill.
 
We don't flush the cases in HD Trucks and the standard drain interval for synthetic is 500,000 mi. Assuming you have a few less miles I wouldn't worry about flushing or getting the last few drips out. Once it slows to a drip it's time to refill.
 
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