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This video is a tutorial on doing a BMW E36 Differential Fluid Change, its a rather simple, and effective way of extending the life of your rear differential and helping it run better.
There are two bolts in the differential that deal with draining and refilling it, the bottom is the drain plug, and the top is the fill plug.
Tools needed are a 14 mm hex socket, 14 mm monkey wrench, oil pan, differential fluid (approx. 1.8 quarts), pump, jack and jackstand.
First remove the fill plug, than remove the drain plug and drain the system. Once completely drained use a pump to pump the new differential fluid into the differential.
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0:00
Hey viewers, this is E36 Fanatics and today I'm gonna do a job on my BMW E36 323i
0:16
I'm gonna just change the differential fluid, which is right under here
0:23
It's pretty easy to do pretty quick, but it can extend the life of your differential quite a bit
0:30
and make it last longer. So I'm gonna show you how to do that
0:36
Okay, so this is a pretty straightforward job, but there is an issue or two with doing this
0:42
So the first and biggest issue is, so you go to the store
0:50
oh, one second. So you go to the store and pick up your socket
0:57
which is a 14 millimeter hex socket, hex socket to fit both of these and you go back to the car and you try it out on the bolts
1:07
and then you put it on the top one and turns out there's not enough room there's not
1:17
enough room at all to even get a swivel up here because this is blocking it so
1:24
what you have to do what I did is I is I take the 14 inch hex
1:32
Of course this is only if you can find a short one Some of the stores you can order the short 14 millimeter hex socket from them But most of them you can or it going to take a few days
1:46
and I don't have time to sit around and wait for a short hex to come in
1:51
So what I did is I just took a 14 millimeter monkey
2:00
Just took a 14 millimeter monkey wrench. and just put it on the end of this of the socket and fit it in as far as I could
2:12
and turned it and you can see it's coming loose now so first thing you do with
2:19
changing the fluid is you want to actually change oh you want to open up the fill
2:24
first which is the top one this is because you want to make sure that you can get
2:29
this one open before you open the open the empty one, the release bolt
2:37
This is the release one right here. And also because you let some of the air out of the system
2:44
when you open this up that's been sitting in there and you want to do that before you release everything
2:50
So I've already gotten this loosened. I'm going to go ahead and get my pan prepared
2:56
It's just a regular black pan that I use for oil. and then I'll go ahead and release the old differential fluid
3:09
Okay so like I said I doing the same thing with this bottom bolt I got the hex the socket on and I just put the monkey wrench in it in turn
3:23
And you got to put a lot of force on this because it's torque pretty high
3:28
And my monkey wrench isn't that tough in the first place. But it worked for both of these two sock bolts
3:37
And here's the first one. And as you can see, it's a short little stubby bolt, but it's torqued really, it's torqued pretty good
3:48
So, got this loose. I got my pan about to release it and then it's going to dump out oil
3:57
Okay, so at the moment it's still pouring out differential fluid, but here you can kind of, you can see the difference between the new and the old
4:07
Here's the older stuff, and it's turned kind of a murky brown color
4:13
Then here's the new stuff, and it's like a light yellow color
4:18
It's almost clear, really. And before I bought this stuff, I talked to a couple of people about what was the best, really, for BMW E36s
4:29
and I actually called the German dealership, BMW dealership. And it seems like they recommend 75W
4:37
40 now. They used to in previous years recommend 75W90, but they recommend 140 currently
4:48
And it supposed to be really good stuff A lot of people like using Royal Purple as the brand or red label I think it called but red line But I just got mobile one It a little bit cheaper
5:03
Okay, so what I've been using for this is I bought a little pump from Harbor Freight
5:13
And basically it was like five bucks and it's got two hoses and you just pump it
5:19
And so one side you use to pump from the gear fluid
5:25
And then the other side you use it to pump into the top hole right here
5:33
Now, of course, you leave this top hole open when you're filling it and close, go ahead and seal this one
5:39
And you just pump it. And basically you, it measures out to be about 1.8 quarts
5:47
but usually you spill a little bit. So what I usually do is you just fill it until it starts dribbling out
5:54
and that'll be 1.8 quarts basically, just about 1.8 quarts or a little more
6:00
but it's just around there. So what I do is I just wait until it starts dribbling out
6:05
and then you've hit the magic number of about 1.8. And then you just seal, close this up real quick at the top
6:12
and go ahead and tighten it up and you're done here. real quick job and makes your differential last much longer than it would otherwise if you didn't
6:22
replace your differential fluid. I hope y'all enjoyed this video. If you did, please like, comment
6:28
and subscribe. And thank you. Y'all have a good one
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#Vehicle Repair & Maintenance