I believe I located the differential drain plug(on the bottom of diff, decent size square 1" x 1" or so... So I will need a 1/2" square recess socket for that
BUT... The check/fill plug I could not find for some reason, perhaps its buried under some gunk? Anyone able to tell me what size socket the fill plug is and where it is located?
Gotta drain this diff asap
ALOHA

 

On an xjr6 the filler plug is on the top right corner of the diff when facing it from the rear of the car. It's 1/2" square female and a selection of 1/2" and 3/8" extensions with a reducer normally lets you fit onto it. Can't imagine the diff you'd have should be different so give it a good clean and you should find it. The drain plug is just a 1/2" square male so the same 1/2" drive extension will fit. Or have I got male/female plugs mixed up? Anyroads - no sockets required, just the extensions at 1/2" drive.

 

It's just below the black plastic vent.

 

thanks for the help! gotta get me some square extensions

 

Just for giggles, or whatever you want to call it.

UNDO the filler plug BEFORE you drain the diff. If you drain the thing, and for some strange reason the filler plug will NOT come undone, you are UNDONE hahaha. It is a tad hard to fill the thing via the drain hole, mmmmm.

I only say this coz years (many) ago I did that on my Citroen, drained the transaxle, and then found some fool had rounded the fill plug, so transaxle OUT of the car so I could drill and retap to complete the 30 minute job, in 3 days, happy, NO, never got caught again, never will.

 

wow thank you Grant for mentioning that! I will definitely be taking out the check/fill plug first. That is a great thing to mention! I don't have 3 days to spare haha
Mahalo

 

Hmmmmm... searching around on this board (and elsewhere), I've come across comments which say there is no drain plug. And to change the oil, one must use an extractor through the fill hole. Is that right???

My '97 VDP had its differential go out at about 60,000 miles. The shop said it was "dry as a bone". Which was odd because I never saw any leaked oil in my garage. I replaced the diff, and now I'm at about 125k miles so I think I'd like to put some fresh oil in there and make sure it's topped off.

Can one of the experts clarify?

 

An x300 (1995-1997 straight 6) car should have both drain and refill plugs. The x308 (1998? onwards V8) doesn't have the drain plug as far as I know.

 

To the best of my 40+ years of knowledge, the only Jaguar diffs that DID NOT have a drain plug were the Dana units used in mid '80's XJ-S.

So unless your X300 is an XJ-S in disguise, YOU GOT A DRAIN PLUG. It has a male square of 1/2" spanner size, and visible/accessable thru the tin plate on the bottom of the assembly, which has a hole about 1 1/2" diam where that plug is.

Some fresh oil will be greatly appreciated by your diff.