Lost fill hose in front diff

Title says it all. I was filling my front diff, and the 6” plastic hose popped off the end and into the differential. I can’t reach it with fingers (they won’t fit) or with needle nose pliers.

It’s 100% my fault; I shifted my arm while squeezing the Amsoil 75W-90 bag, and I truly thought that plastic hose was seated on the bag nozzle. I wiggled it after putting it on, and it seemed stuck on there really well. But apparently not. I should have duct taped it, and now I get to reap the rewards.

Guess I have to take it apart, huh?

EDIT: Or maybe I could remove the drain plug and see if I can reach it through that. I can’t get back to it till this evening. We’ll see. Won’t be using 4x4 until it’s out, obviously.

 

I would definitely give the drain plug route a shot. Maybe you can blow some air from the top to see if you can move it near the drain plug. Good luck.

 

Remove fill and then drain plug, let it drain out and maybe the hose will get close enough to the drain to grab it or draining may make it poke out. Try cutting and bending a wire or clothes hanger to the size and shape you need to push it from the fill hole, pull it from the drain. Other than that, remove front diff cover, get it out and reseal.

That does suck, 10 minute job turns into a spectacle....been there!

 

Time to go fishin with a coat hanger or baling wire

 

Thanks for the replies. I thought about the coat hanger thing, but not blowing air to try to make it fall. I will be trying both for sure.

 

Use this once and then return it

https://www.americaautodirect.com/c...IPfs6eowd70jQO5Mlel_IHRYERJwjwOxoCGEQQAvD_BwE

 

4wd or 2wd, the diff turns when the truck moves. So if you drive it without removing the tube, it will probably end up in the gears.

 

for 100.00 i'd keep that thing round! that'd make this cluster a 3 minute ordeal.

 

Do you like pickles?

$10 Norpro, Inc-Pickle Picker, 4 Ounce, Gray

https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Inc-P...t=&hvlocphy=9030244&hvtargid=pla-378918714604

 

Thank you for posting this. Not to pile on, but your hard learned wisdom is now my simple knowledge. Get a hose too long to lose in the diff.

 

90 degree needle nose pliers or something similar? Pull drain plug would be worth trying too.

 

Dont feel to bad. Couple months ago I was cutting zip ties under my seat that I used to route a wire. Well in a hurry I cut my yellow wire to the airbag. $1100 learning moment.

 

The worst! Turning a job into a harder job because something went sideways. I've found it's usually something that you would have trouble doing again even if you were trying to duplicate the issue. All of these could be solved with the life "ten second rewind" button that I'm trying to invent.

 

Can you do a 10yr also?

 

Thanks for posting this. I could see myself doing that in a second and will now be careful in the future. At least you were pumping in the good stuff.

Hope you can get it fixed without too much trouble.

 

Ok, so I looked into that thing, and it appears to be too big. So I found a decent endoscope and flexible grabber off of
Amazon that will show up in the morning.

I am VERY skeptical that I will be able to get it. I really don’t want to drop the diff just to open the cover. But it seems like that is what I would have to do.

Maybe I’ll just order 5.29s and lockers and drive it as is until I can get a shop booked to do the install.

 

I should have used a long hose for sure. I didn’t have one, and my wife was gone, so I could go get one. I remembered that the 75W Ravenol bottle that I used for the TC came with a little extendable hose attached to the bottle. Popped that little hose off, smashed it onto the Amsoil nozzle, checked that it was snug, and off I went.

All it took was a slight shift of my arm as I was lying on my back under my truck to pop that stupid little hose off right down the fill hole. FML

 

I use a 200cc Mighty-Vac syringe. Suck it out of the jug and squirt it in the front diff. I can’t imagine the look on your face as you watched the little tube slide in there! Hope you get it out man.

 

Man this sucks. I just lost the plastic cap from one of those squeez packs in my front diff. Forgot to pull it off before I put the nozzle in the fill hole and it fell right in. I was able to use an inspection scope, move it toward the drain plug and flush it out. 10 minutes job done in 5 hours. Good luck to you.

 

I use a 12v pump with a few feet of clear hose when doing this stuff. I have nothing to add other than that blows.

 

Vaccum maybe? Idk if it would work but it cant be too far in the way went in.

 

Sorry that hapened. I just got 8 of those Amsol bags for the diffs & transfer case. I will learn from your mistake and be extra careful.

 

The rear diff is super easy. Lots of space to work in. The front diff fill hole is in a pretty tight spot. My first mistake: not having any extra bags of 75W-90 in case I spilled a bit. I only had exactly the amount that I needed. If I had an extra bag, I might not have been so worried about spilling when trying to work in that much tighter space at the front diff.

And yeah, if you think about it, use a long enough hose that it won’t disappear into the diff. I didn’t have any, was stuck at home, and I decided to improvise with the Ravenol hose that came with their bottles. It was fine for the first bag of oil, but like I said I shifted just a bit while holding the second bag up, and it popped off.

 

I’m gettin pumped that this might work. Just gotta watch this montage a few more times before my tools show up

 

X2, ^^.

 

The grabber seems a good idea. I've seen many front diff fluid change problems over the years but this is a new one. Usually it's the facking 10mm Allen plugs won't release (been there). I recommend contact a Lexus dealer and get the Lexus fill/drain plugs that are 24mm external hex rather than the ridiculous 10mm Allens. Direct swap.

 

I'm thinking the same thing. I wouldn't drive it until it's removed.

 

I know EXACTLY how you feel; short version, couple decades ago, intake off, small piece of something (can't remember what) snaps off and bounces up off the bottom of hood and disappears. I assume for days it's gone into the engine. Searched a million different ways. Finally gave up looking and put back together. Little anxiety as I started it the first time. Went fine, never found the little thing...

 

I don't know what it is with these front diffs, but so many of us have stories of what should be a 30 minute job turns into a day long ordeal. For me I don't know if I got more oil on the ground or in the diff from blowing out tubes or spilling bottles - glad I have lots of kitty litter to clean up the driveway a bit