Change your differential fluid!

[jeremywes]

Go with the purple stuff!! I've been using Royal Purple in my car (that get raced pretty hard) and have had no problems or noise. I changed the dif oil at 1,000 miles and again at 2,500 and the metal shaving were about half the second time. 10 min job.

[Russell James]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

Now he says that mine is an automatic so I don't have a clutch to create the debris. What say you to that?????????????????

That changes things. Husband is correct.

The owner's manual will recommend changing it at 45,000 miles for severe service, or 97,500 miles for normal service.

I would just follow that with an open differential.

[tonyko1]

The differential fluid that comes from the factory is synthetic GM brand. Of course you are going to get shavings, you have heavy honking gears meshing together, be pretty hard not to.

As some said, can't hurt to change it, unless you screw it up by not tightening the bolts back down and let it leak, but otherwise, not a big deal.

I would recommend putting the additional friction modifier or whatever it is called, about 2oz that you can add to the diff fluid. In 1999 Chevy added too light a diff fluid to the Silverados and we were inundated with calls at the GM center. They brought them back to service and just drained the fluid, adding heavier oil and the friciton modifier. Really pissed off a lot of people who were driving brand new trucks with screaming rear-ends. They were worried they were permanently damaged, but GM claimed they were fine...

[Nasty1970]

Originally Posted by ss=scuba steve

I have never changed diff. fluid in any vehicle I have ever owned...... I have owned performance cars before (01 Trans Am, 07 Trailblazerr SS). Never had a problem..... Oh yeah, I've been a diesel mechanic for 15 years. Never changed diff. fluid in any truck in any fleet I have worked at...... just sayin

Ive changed them just because i was bored, but I would imagine 90% of the people who own these cars dont change the diff fluids and they are just fine.

I'm curious if we need to add a friction goop to the diff, or if these oils mentioned above have them mixed in. I have a 1970 and I always had to add the friction modifier to the oil, but i guess it depends on oil.

[Tenring]

I added a little friction modifier even though the Amsoil had it mixed in the gear oil, thinking was it cannot hurt to add a little and Amsoil agreed.

Thought I would reply to this thread as I am not sure any of the original posters are still around here, it was years ago.

[z3R0fo01]

I added it in too. Figured it was worth it to not have to do it twice.

[Hicompression]

58,000 original owner miles here. Hasn't been changed yet!

[z3R0fo01]

I changed mine after 12k miles. It still smelled like gear lube, and could have probably lasted 20k. I think I went every 30k in my evo x and it smelled new once and then another time it was completely broken down. Gear lube has a really specific smell before it breaks down.

Also, I get the people that don't want to change it. For a regular daily driver it doesn't really matter much. But if you spend a lot on your car performance wise, might as well keep everything as clean as possible.

There was not much on the magnet, and it dd not look too dirty. There was some silver stuff in it. Not sure if that is from the clutches or if it is in the friction modifier.

[FASTDIESEL]

I've never regularly changed differential oil in the 40+ years I've been working on cars, BUT, when I saw the rear only held ONE QUART, I got right on it.

Service history showed the Dealer changed at 30K. I changed again at 98K. Had some metal. Nothing scary, but I'll Mobil 1 it every 30K. Easy and cheep!

[RobertRS]

Just an FYI. Wife's Camaro had developed a faint groan from driver rear when executing slow left turns. After some brief research, I drained and replaced the rear differential fluid with the recommended A/C Delco lubricant and GM additive from the service manual. All is silky smooth again. Car has just 3006 miles so far. Obviously the limited slip feature is clean lubricant sensitive. Only a slight amount of fine metallic particulates in the drained lube but it was a very dark gray color. Cheap insurance though just to change it through its break in. And yea, one quart is a low volume of lube and should probably be changed more frequent than other differential setups.

[BLK141SS]

Just changed the diff fluid in my 2014 SS. I was at 2,500 miles, should have read the owners manual. Changing it was easy as pie, no need to even to jack it up. I went with Amsoil Severe Gear and I also mixed in 2 ounces of Amsoil Slip Lock just to be safe. I had the same nasty assembly lube sludge like everyone else had on my drain plug. Didn't notice any metal shavings in the drain pan.

I also replaced the drain plug with a magnetic one. These are super nice! I've got one in the oil pan and a set for my Tremec too. I'll be replacing the trans fluid next. http://goldplug.com/shop/

[SIM GhostrdrZ]

I just changed my tranny and diff oil. 2014 V6 manual with limited slip diff. I used RP for both. It had 2800 miles on it and I never liked how it shifted between gears from day 1 when I drove it off the lot. I put a hurst shifter in it which helped tremendously. But after changing both oils, it finished off the shifting feel to what I thought GM should have had from these camaros. I was going more for endurance with the better oil and getting the old sludgy oil out after the intial break in period. I have always gotten upwards of 2-3 hundred thousand miles out of my cars due to the fact I keep them maintained. Synthetic oils are the only way to go in my opinion. So any good synthetic oil is great, the brand is just a matter of personal preference. My plugs were already magnetic so I cleaned them and reinstalled. I can tell the drivetrain runs smoother now. This is my first time trying RP so time will tell all.
Thanks for all the info from other posts, it all really helps. Unlike most dealers.

[Bretts]

just did 3.91 swap black metal milkshake and a mag plug from factory 8000 km

[rberns]

Agreed. Did mine a few weeks ago with 4700 miles and the old oil and magnets were nasty