Front Differential Oil Change - Toyota 120 Prado

Hello guys! I want to show you how to service and change the gear oil inside of your front differential.

This tutorial is made for a Toyota 120 Prado, but it’s fairly universal application for most cars.

I am not a mechanic, so please take everything with a grain of salt.

Overall, this is not a difficult oil change, I recommend you have the right tools to make the job easier.

Tools for

Steps to Change 120 Prado Diff Oil

Here are the steps I followed:

Step 1. Undo the top oil fill plug. It’s always best to do this first, to make sure you can refill it.

Step 2. Undo the bottom oil drain plug, prepare for the oil to come out. Make sure you have a bucket handy to catch the oil. There’s only approximately 1 litre, so you won’t need a massive bucket.

Step 3. Let all of the oil drain out and inspect the quality of the oil. If the oil is brown/black and smells burnt, then it was definetely ready to be changed,

Step 4. Put the drain plug back in, without over tightening it. Using a breaker bar, just apply a reasonable amount of force.

Step 5. Refill the differential from the top oil fill plug, make sure to fill it all the way till the oil is level with the oil fill plug. I like to use a small bottle of differential oil, to make my life easy.

Step 6. Put the oil fill plug back in, without over tightening.

I hope this helps guys!

Video Summary of Changing Diff Oil

If you want a visual demonstration, I filmed this video on changing the front differential oil on my 120 Prado.