At ~5K miles I got the A1 service reminder from the maintenance minder.

At around 10K miles, my wife surprised me by taking my car and getting the rear spoiler put on. While it was in there, they changed the oil when the oil life was still at ~50%. Since my wife was the one who took it in, she could have easily asked for it, so I don't know why it was done.

Now at 15,800 miles, I just received the A1 reminder again. My concern is that I haven't received the notification to have the rear diff fluid changed, and I believe I have read that it usually should be changed around 7,500 miles for severe driving, and 15k miles in other situations. I'm not sure if that unscheduled oil change, and the subsequent reset of the maintenance minder is skewing things, or if I truly don't need to have the diff fluid changed.

The service dept said that they typically see the MM calling for the fluid change at 15K on RLs and MDXs. THey said they would do whatever I wanted, either change it now or wait to see is it comes up at the next interval.

What mileage have your cars called for the diff fluid change?

Thoughts?

 

Don't worry about it too much. I had my first rear diff changed at 115,000 miles and have had no problems.

I posted something about it here:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ight=rear+diff

 

I have a bit less than 17000 miles and have done it twice so far (based on the MID prompts). BTW, I did both myself, which is easy but a bit messy for the fill part of the process.

 

My car has 86500 miles on it and I've had it since 43k miles (bought in 2008) and the rear diff fluid has never been changed while in my possession. The MID has never thrown the code for it either so I decided to change it today (yes, both chambers) since it's relative cheap and easy to do. What came out looked almost new, very close in color to the new stuff that went in so I'm thinking maybe it should not have been changed and I should just follow the MID.

Separate, but related, the chambers call for ATF Z1 (2.7 qt in one and 0.7 in the other), but since that is no longer available I used DW1. Apparently, the dealers are now using a new AWD fluid in cars now. I called the dealer and they indicated that ATF is still OK to use at least for the older RLs and since I had some on hand I used it. I've had no issues with my diff so far.

 

I know you already changed it, but I would drain that DW1 and use the AWD fluid in the rear differential. Dealers say whatever they say and very few seem to ever have a clue what they are talking about!

If you read the back of the bottles of DW1, it will say that it replaces ATF-Z1 in the tranny only. AWD fluid was designed to be used in the differential as a replacement for Z1.

Don't know exactly why they split up the fluid types now whereas before ATF-Z1 could be used in both, but Acura is very specific about DW1 going in Tranny only and to use AWD fluid for the differential. Read the bottles and then consider what you want to do I guess.

Having said that, of course nothing will stop the differential from working immediately if you have DW1 in there... it's probably just long term effects.

 

Guess I could drain it and put it in the tranny.

 

Agreed. Do it again with DPSF (SH-AWD) fluid.

 

DIFFERENTIAL FLUID - REPLACE - REAR - [Driving in mountainous areas at very low vehicle speeds or trailer towing results in higher level of mechanical (shear) stress to fluid. This requires differential fluid changes more frequently than recommended by the Maintenance Minder. If you regulary drive your vehicle under these conditions have the differential fluid changed at 7500 miles then every 15000 miles. ]

clutch chamber 2.81 qts at fluid change 3.29 qts at overhaul
hypoid chamber .77 qt at fluid change .79 qt at overhaul

Here is also a pic of the differential temperature sensor