Changing diff oil

[lorraine]

Want to do an oil change to the front diff and rear trans axle diff in my 2003 Transporter Syncro.I can see the drain plug for both but I cannot see where the filler plug is. Can anyone help with the location of these.My workshop manual is no help!

[jets]

I have just changed the oil on the front gearbox on my'01 Syncro. The drain plug is at the bottom as you would expect. The fill/level plug is halfway up the front face. A 14mm allen key fits both. I have a 1/2inch drive 14mm tool which allows the use of a torque wrench which in this case is set at 25Nm.
The factory manual says on the Syncro the oil is filled to 9mm below the bottom of the fill plug hole. I can only guess that this is done to help blowing seals as in the T3. I filled mine until the oil was up to the hole & then drained it back to roughly the setting. It's very difficult to check & what the Foreman of my VW dealership told me is as long as you can get oil on the end of your finger. You will understand once you do it. I used the genuine VW oil, it took under 3 litres. There is an aluminium washer/seal under the filler & drain plugs, you may want to replace them.
The rear gearbox is obvious where the plugs are & in this case you pump in oil up to the bottom of the fill hole.

[WEDEL.1]

Volksfactory did mine at 100K. I also added Nulon diff oil treatment also (makes gear changing even smoother).

Maris