Owned for a while, found you guys just recently....

JAOHN · 07-06-2004, 09:07 PM

Hey there, I've owned my Titan since mid may, but I just found the forum a couple days ago. I've got one at least of the issues that ya'll talked about in in the past couple days. I have a lot of reading to do in the forseeable future... but I have done some in the last 2 days. I saw the warning about the differential oil level, and that caused me to go and check mine, and I think I'm low. I stuck my "next to pinky finger" up to the second knuckle into the top bolt of my 2WD read diff. and I just barely touched the top of the oil there.

I've got a couple simple questions...

(1) How full should the the rear diff on a 2WD to be measurable by a pinky?
(2) It looked like the filler screw(for lack of a better term) had some teflon tape on the threads. Should I do that?
(3) I see that others are putting synthetics like mobil 1 in after draining and refilling. I am considering this, but I haven't seen this locally. (I haven't been into too many auto parts stores lately...) so any sugguestions where to find this?

I am concerned ... now more than ever, because I plan to leave on Sunday for a 2500 mile-6 day trip. For the back half of that, I'll be towing about 4K lbs.

What else do I really have to be concerned about for my trip?

Apart from the RF radio issues, I am very happy about my Titan purchase.

--J

(edit: noticed a bad typo-- changed "Sunday from a 2500" to "Sunday for a 2500" near the end of the msg)

Sammy Sandbag · 07-06-2004, 09:15 PM

Welcome to the forum. The diff oil should be right at the fill plug, so if you have to reach in with your finger to touch it, then you are low. I think some sort of gasket sealant should work on the threads, other's will know more about that. To save time I just had the diff lube changed out when I got the oil changed.

JAOHN · 07-06-2004, 09:19 PM

Sammy-- Thanks for the welcome to my first post.

That was my thought regarding being low on the diff oil from reading some of the other posts that I have read. the level of my oil is about an inch and a half below the fill plug.

Sammy Sandbag · 07-06-2004, 09:24 PM

No problem, glad to have another Titan owner aboard.

I would definately drain and refill it up to the fill plug. Blue RTV might work as a sealant. My last truck didn't have any sealant on the fill plug, and no drain plug, so I'm not too familar with how to treat it.

JAOHN · 07-06-2004, 09:36 PM

Pardon my ignorance... Blue RTV???? is that something at a pepboys or autozone? I like to think that I'm very handy, but my handiness in the last 10 years has always been in the way of working on the house and not the autos. My plan is to get more to the mechanical side soon, because I want to do a old car restoration in a couple years. Back in high school, when I had a leaky engine oil drain bolt in an old corolla, I think that I had sealed it with chewing gum. It worked for what I needed it to!

IMADOGMAN · 07-06-2004, 09:44 PM

I found mine at the local AutoZone parts store...

Either Permatex High Performance Thread Sealant or Permatex High Temperature Thread Sealant works well. Better for sealing threads than the RTV...

Big Platinum · 07-06-2004, 09:49 PM

I've always just used regular old teflon tape, i was told by a mechanic friend to do this and never had problems. if you really want to be sure, you can use the stuff nissan reccomends, just don't use locktite.

BTW, if you can't find any synthetic, any GL5 80w-90 will work. I would go ahead and drain it while you're doing this cause I had a ton of junk in mine after only 2000 miles. You can buy a big jug of oil and a cheap hand pump and just pump it right in until it is all the way to the fill hole (make sure you are on level ground). Use the Teflon on both the drain and fill plugs (make sure to thread the teflon in the right direction around the bolts) and DON'T overcrank them, just tighten until they are snug.

Any questions or concerns there is plenty of people here to help. Welcome aboard.

Bayou Titan · 07-06-2004, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAOHN

Hey there, I've owned my Titan since mid may, but I just found the forum a couple days ago. I've got one at least of the issues that ya'll talked about in in the past couple days. I have a lot of reading to do in the forseeable future... but I have done some in the last 2 days. I saw the warning about the differential oil level, and that caused me to go and check mine, and I think I'm low. I stuck my "next to pinky finger" up to the second knuckle into the top bolt of my 2WD read diff. and I just barely touched the top of the oil there.

I've got a couple simple questions...

(1) How full should the the rear diff on a 2WD to be measurable by a pinky?
(2) It looked like the filler screw(for lack of a better term) had some teflon tape on the threads. Should I do that?
(3) I see that others are putting synthetics like mobil 1 in after draining and refilling. I am considering this, but I haven't seen this locally. (I haven't been into too many auto parts stores lately...) so any sugguestions where to find this?

I am concerned ... now more than ever, because I plan to leave on Sunday for a 2500 mile-6 day trip. For the back half of that, I'll be towing about 4K lbs.

What else do I really have to be concerned about for my trip?

Apart from the RF radio issues, I am very happy about my Titan purchase.

--J

(edit: noticed a bad typo-- changed "Sunday from a 2500" to "Sunday for a 2500" near the end of the msg)

JAOHN,

I changed my gear oil today and used Mobil 1 like several other Titan Talk members have. I went to Walmart today and they didn't carry Mobil 1 gear oil. Auto Zone and the other parts stores do carry it however. I tried filling the rear end using just the bottle that it is sold in and found that method to be difficult. The spare tire is in the way and it is hard to lift the bottle above the fill hole for it to drain properly. You end up having to constantly squeeze the bottle to get it to squirt in there. I went back to the parts store and bought a Flotool (about $3.00) which is a spout with a flexible hose. Man, does this ever make the job easy. The Flotool has adapters so that it can fit different size bottle openings (motor oil, coolant, etc). It has a twist on/off valve and a clear flexible hose so you can control and watch the flow rate. Because you remove the cap from the gear oil bottle, you don't have to cut the tip off like you would otherwise. I like this aspect because you can totally seal the bottle if you have some left over. If you use the replacement tip that covers the open bottle, it can easily come off if the bottle falls over. I filled the the differential until it was filled and oil started coming back out of the hole that I was filling. I do have one question that I would like to have answered by fellow Titan Talk members. How long will you wait until you change your differential oil again? I do not pull anything heavy (only a 10' utility trailer)

**goathead** · 07-07-2004, 06:04 AM

Quote:

How long will you wait until you change your differential oil again?

i want to know this as well. i just checked mine and it appears to be just below full. instead of topping off w/ mobil 1 and mixing that w/ nissan stuff, i decided to wait until my next oil change to change out. but if im not towing anything, how long between diff fluid changes? what does nissan recommend on this?

steve