Hope you guys are staying safe out there during these crazy times. My regular job has seen a large increase in orders because of Covid-19. I realize not everyone is as lucky. Take care guys. Also, cut me some slack. I'm about 4-6 weeks overdue for a haircut at this point haha. Here are the links to the tools that I used in this video: Some of these vehicles have Torx or sometimes hex (Allen) style fill plugs. This vehicle had a standard 3/8ths square drive. Check what you have before ordering. Serpentine belt tool (3/8ths sqaure drive): amzn.to/2VMlm75 Low profile Trox bits: amzn.to/3cE8M0s Low profile Allen bits: amzn.to/2zlHVb5 Fluid extractor/brake bleeder: amzn.to/2xFjuoJ Manual Fluid Extractor: amzn.to/3eCFEIR Fill Pump: amzn.to/2yy549X Teflon tape: amzn.to/2RUmEfa Motorcraft oil: amzn.to/2VTL1dQ Valvoline oil:amzn.to/2x2OZso Help support the channel buy using my Amazon links As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Hi All - I just recently did this on my 2014 Ford Escape using the steps in this video (THANK-YOU!). I did it on the ground, jacking it up about a foot and crawling underneath. I used a flat ratchet I bought from Amazon (Powerbuilt 2 Pc. 1/4 in. and 3/8 in. Drive Socket Lever - 940009) and with a piece of conduit for leverage, I was able to easily get the plug out. I used a break-bleeder syringe and tube to suck about 750 mls out. It took me all and all about an hour to do. When I removed the splash guard/skid plate I noticed a fair amount of rust on the underbody so I took some extra time and used a wire brush to get the rust off and sprayed the metal down with rust-proofing oil. Please wear eye protection.

I scheduled this rear diff fluid change on my 2017 Escape at a Ford dealer, no problem right? When I dropped the vehicle off they didn’t do the job, the dealers service department said the fill plug wouldn’t come out in spite of soaking it with penetrating fluid and they didn’t want to crack the diff case. They recommended I take it to a third party transmission shop. I took it home, jacked it up and took the diff skid plate off which obviously had never been removed as the bolts were still undisturbed. The fill plug wasn’t soaked in fluid and hadn’t been disturbed. I did the job myself and then called the head of the Ford Service department and called him on their flat out lie. Of course he had to check into it, when he got back to me he had no excuse except to lamely tell me they should have told me that ‘if they had tried to do the job’ it would have been difficult. To my knowledge I’ve never had a Ford service department tell a bald faced lie like that before.

The diff has a drain plug if you look at the front of it.

Great video. I fully agree with your point that fluids are cheap, parts are expensive. Preventative maintenance keeps machines running for a long time. Serviceability isn't considered as a priority during automotive design.

READ THIS FOR TIME SAVING... First off if you have a 2013 the fill plug probably does not use a square 3/8" driver for removal but rather an 8mm hex key. A 5/16 hex key (7.93mm) may work but you risk rounding (stripping) it and making the removal even more difficult. You can try to cut down the 8mm hex key to fit or follow the instructions below to make the whole process easier. For 2013 and up model years the suggestion to remove the mounting bolts to raise the rear differential is actually a very easy process. The rear of the differential is mounted to a bracket and the bracket is attached to the frame. Do not remove the 4 bolts (2 on each side) holding the differential to the bracket. Instead the bracket will be detached from the frame crossmember instead as follows. Looking from the rear of the vehicle above the diff you will see 2 round mounting assemblies that attach the diff bracket. Remove the T55 bolts from the rear from each of those assemblies - very easy to do and the bolts should come out without a lot of effort. These insulated supports have rubber in the center to isolate noise etc from the diff. The diff will move very little with these 2 bolts removed since the front part of the diff assembly has another pair of these round mounting supports - do not touch those! Now with a jack under the rear of the diff you can jack up the read of the diff and it will pivot upwards even with the front part still attached to the isolating mounts. Jack it up only enough so that you can get an 8mm hex socket or 3/8" (based on your year) into the fill plug. but first CLEAN the plug with a wire brush to remove any rust and dirt so that the socket fully inserts into the plug to prevent stripping it. Remove plug and clean all metal shavings from the strong magnet. I used a HFreight air suction brake bleeder to remove the old oil. As mentioned by others, you need to use a smaller more rigid clear or transparent hose (12" at least) pushed into the end of the HF hose since it is hard to feed the hose down into the case. With a little trial and error you can feed it down past the races/gears. I used a 2HP 4 gallon compressor and it did suck out the oil but it takes a while. It is a slow process so give the compression time to cool every so often. I spend 15 minutes and in the end I removed exactly 16 ounches of oil and could not get any more out. The case seemed to be dry at this point. With a clear hose at the top of the case you can tell when you are pulling just air or oil. Keep moving the hose around and try for more oil once it seems like you are ony pulling air out. It is a VERY slow process so you may be pulling out oil slowly even if you think you are not!. I refilled when finished with just over a quart of gear oil. I then lowered the diff and some fluid came out quickly until the level was at the bottom of the fill plug. When it was just dripping I raised the diff again, cleaned it and installed the fill plug with joint sealant. I then lowered the diff off the jack. With the diff off the jack it tends to rest right aound the height it needs to be to re-install the cleaned rear T55 bolts. You may have to move the diff a little by hand to get the bolts started (i put a little blue loctite on them). Make sure they go in clean without stripping any thread. I bolted them fairly snug but did not look up the torque specs for them. If your car is an old northern car like mine (2013) there is a LOT of rust on all the metal frame parts! Wear glasses or you will get rust in your eyes! I spend the morning doing this and cleaning up some of the rusted parts - will paint them next. Foreign car manufacturers definitely use more and better anti-corrosion materials on their metal parts!

That is great information. You are absolutely correct, FORD what were you thinking? My 2014 escape is the same set up. "I Decided" to drill a 3/8 hole directly back from the fill plug so that I could get a 3/8 extension through the rear cross member. I know most people will say DON'T drill through the crossmember but to get the plug out, suck and fill the rear, MUCH easier. You need to take care and measure carefully to get the hole in the correct place. It's my car and I hope to have it for a while. You are again absolutely correct about the PTU unit that MUST be changed more often. BTW I would love to see your idea about changing the trans fluid, Again thanks FORD for no dip stick. Take care

My drain plug was a 5/16" Allen plug. I had to cut some off a standard Allen key to make it fit.

Thanks to you from Austria!!! I had a bad noise on my rear differential. Mechanic said: its gone, make new, 3200euro only material :-( . So i tried to change the oil. Good idea with timebelttool. Made it on my garage-pit. Needs about half an hour. Made it with 100ml syringe from hospital. Fact: sucked out 420ml old oil, filled in 690ml new oil. So it was too less inside. No leaks on garbox. So ford flled too less...... Now the gearbox sounds better. Hope that it will help for a while.

Harbor Freight sells a "Square Drive Socket Caps" set for 4.99. Includes 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" drives. Use with open end, boxed in or ratcheting wrenches for tight spots.

I drilled the bottom, tapped it and fitted a magnetic drain plug right on the white sticker. The case is plenty thick enough to tap. Lock wired it to make sure it won’t come undone . Makes the next oil change a 10 minute job

great video. oddly enough, my standard Husky 3/8 ratchet fits in to remove the plug (tricky, but it def works). other than this, i did the same exact procedure as you (in fact, did it today BEFORE seeing your vid). i also made a little "dipstick" out of an aluminum fence tie to let me know where my fill level was. Did it on the ground and took about an hour. Another guy on here posted his, called "rear diff war" and cut his exhaust out, which is totally unneccesary. I also thought about drillling a hole in the rear member but opted not to as i didnt have to after all. thanks bro!!

I had to go to 3 dealerships to find one that knew they could change the fluid. The dealership that did the work actually lowered the diff to get to the fill port. Mine also has a drain plug.

can you do a transmission fluid video?

Ford never stops amaze me. Because a drain plug and a bit more clearance for the filling plug would have been too much to as to Ford engineers

Still waiting for your mystery undercoating update. Stay safe Bro.

Nice informative video. I have one question, does the friction plate part of diff to the front of the rear diff does it use the same fluid? I ask as normal diff oil doesn't contain anything for a lsd friction plates that it contains.

Is it OK to put Motul Gear Race oil in PTU and rear differential gradation 75w-140? I presume it far better then 80w-90. I live in Europe, climate should be appropriate.

Drill and tap a 1/8npt hole in the rear bottom off the diff near the left rear of the qr code sticker. You now have a drain plug hole. Install a 1/8npt plug with some Teflon tape on the threads. Merry Xmas

Another excellent video.

I would love to see this service on a 2021-2022 Bronco Sport both the PTU and the RDU.

Thanks for this video. I need to do this on my 2014. I’m not looking forward to doing it because I’m in the 98% that will be working on the ground. Lol. Outside in the driveway at that. Waiting on nice weather. I’ve done the front differential oil change after watching your video on that. That turned out ok. Hopefully the rear will go smoothly as well.

thanks hav the belt tool so easy?trying to shave a 3 eights ratchet end to use also??? so shave the end of a ratchet and voila clearance enough to remove and reassemble JPG

After a couple hours of research I was all ready to go but my 2013 SEL has a allen head for the fill plug not a 3/8 ratchet plug. This just escalated the pain in the ass level for my rear differential fluid change excursion. They must have changed the plug in 2014.

Mine has one of those QR code stickers on it. If that sticker was half the size it is a drain plug would fit perfectly. But ford also says that the rear diff fluid is good for life.

I made a special tool to fit the 3/8th fill plug but upon inspection the plug on my 2013 rear diff has a torque hole in it!

The good news is in 2020 they made it very easy, but the special oil is $35/qt.

Hi, any chance you can you make a video on adjusting a loose hand brake? Can't find any videos on it on a 2014 escape. Thanks for all your videos.

Dude I freaking hate these new vehicles. I got a 2014 1.6l ford escape NON-Awd...... Do I have a front differential or what? Is the front differential integrated with the transmission??? I want to drain and fill it but not a single video on doing the front diff. So I am stuck. Please help.

The only thing I would of done besides is to pour the extracted fluid back in the bottle that it is filled from to see if it came close to same amount taken from unit... other wise, good tip

Good info for my Kuga. (European name) will use your guidance.

hand vacuum pump, use a stiff hose to jam to the bottom.

Is the differential spinning constantly?, or do they stop at speed 25 miles

Your rear diff looks like my rear diff in my '13 MKZ 3.7 AWD. However, mine has all kinds of obstructions just inside that plug. Took over an hour of fishing the hose around to get it to start sucking anything. I used the same sucker you have and only got enough out to fill it half way. Truth... how long did you fish that hose around?

Hi dear , m from Malaysia ,driving Kuga 2013 1.6T . I notice there is vibration noise coming from rear bottom when i turn corner at stand still or low speed (

how many liters are needed..??

There are 2 “plugs” in my 2017 escape 2.0 One faces the rear, the other faces to the drivers side. The drivers facing one (40 torx) is a little lower than the one facing rearward (3/8” square). It would make sense the lower one is for draining. So the rear facing one is the quantity level?

Its shameful that vehicle manufacturers design things this way. Lifetime fluid my ass! I know its becoming the new trend but it definitely influences my vehicle purchasing decisions. I wouldn't take a German car as a gift for this reason. They seem to take pleasure in making things difficult to work on!!

Took me like 30 minutes total on the ground lol

Good job

I wonder if it would affect that crossmember strength much just to drill like a 1" hole thorough it where that plug is to access it from the back with an extension. Sure would be alot easier.

Is the awd 2016 fusion the same way

How much did you end up putting in?

You took synthetic oil out and put regular back in which given the $5-8 difference in cost makes no sense to me. Synthetic is always the best choice.

Thank you!

I put 5 litter transmission fluid , level my car and start the engine and open the drain plug but after 10 minutes no fluid came out. When I stop the engine then fluid come out . I checked all video but every video shows after engine start then fluid come out. Now the question which is right ?

Meanwhile , pull into a jiffy lube or oil change place and they say according to ford, its time to change your differential fluid lol

I own one of these, but for my next car what would you recommend purchasing? Looking at either sedan or truck.

I haven't gotten in there to change this yet - DREADING doing it, Im a pretty big guy and am gonna be doing it on the garage floor. Have you seen the 3/8 T-bar flex ratchet at Harbor Freight? It looks pretty skinny and may get up in at that weird angle?

I know it been 3 years since this video was posted. I just changed my rear differential oil change 100,000 miles. And I would like to know how much oil you got from your suction can during you rear differential change. I got 25 oz of old oil. I could not drain anymore. I would like to know how much. Thanks

How do you replace the rear diff gasket does the axle need to be dropped

One of the many reasons I traded mine in for a Grand Cherokee

I have 2013 escape bought it with 16k has 134k never changed transmission fluid so I leave it or change it

i wish i had you as a neighbor! can you do this for my car?

You have to take into account that these cars are mostly sold in the rust belt and fall apart from road salts and the engineers are from the same part of the country so 5 year reliability is not an issue to them. Here on the west coast where we don't like salty ice cream cones we have to endure the cheap engineering these big three throw at us. Who can afford 60,000 dollars every 5 or 6 years to replace a rust bucket, Ford has at least tried to address the issue with aluminizeing some of there stuff

How you doing mr. Man I have to tell you right now I need some help with my Mustang 4.6 L it's a 96 my mechanic said that cylinder number 3 and cylinder number 5 or down but it seems to me cylinder number 3 and cylinder number 5 should be on the driver's side but the cylinders that aren't running seem to be on the passenger side which I thought were one through four that's how I have the plugs wired and I know that you can go the other way I've seen lots of stuff on that but is the number one plug on a Mustang on the driver side or the passenger side in the front I have to ask you what's your opinion on this because it's running a lot better especially since I got it back from my mechanic and put the spark plug wires back on the spark plugs right I mean clip them in anyway and he's telling me I got to change the head this is Matt and I have a erect one that I can get all kinds of Parts off of so I'm trying to think to myself was he's really trying to make money off of me what would your suggestion before my problem he said he did a wet test on 4 compression on all cylinders and he said number 5 and number 7 had nothing but he also told me before that when I was working on myself that that particular motor with computer it actually sends a signal the number 7 and somehow the signal goes from 7 to 5 even though 5 is firing first I can't remember the terminology for that I didn't write do you have any advice for me I really appreciate it it seems to be running a lot better I put a few cans of steals all in the water and oil and I've gained some horsepower back that way. I was hoping you might be able to give me some advice I had heard one point time in some of my studies at number 7 always has a problem but I don't know what that is at any rate I appreciate your time thank you for your due diligence logic reason and Sensibility in all of your mechanic work and I am a study of mechanical engineering I was an apprentice at a machine shop for three and a half years I was so Advanced they put me in the inspection room and had me calibrating tools and running the coordinate measuring machine and going out and telling the boys that were there for 25 years how to adjust how to adjust your machines but what they needed to do to make the adjustments to get it into tolerance I was driven out shortly after this but we know at this point that there can only be so many Alphas in one room at one time LOL and I'm sorry about the talk-to-text I'm not going to go back and edit it because with this device close enough is close enough thank you sir any advice would be appreciated for my 96 Mustang 4.6 liter

Is this service only for AWD Ford Escapes?

mig weld a nut on it and use a extra long flex ratchet wrench .....Or Not

I find it totally infuriating that there’s not a drain and fill plug in Ford’s infinite wisdom that they don’t put it in an accessible location and don’t even get me started about the ptu…. I think after my experience with the Ford escape this will be the last Ford I ever purchased

There is a drain plug.....

So I'm about 8 minutes 50 seconds and you're talking about the 80 90 gear weight oil the Ford recommends. I had an 8 in B flathead Ford 4 cylinder tractor and it has a giant transmission case in it and when I have started looking that up the suggestions were popping out for the 9 and be at 80 90 weight by the 8th and B it said something about mineral oil so do you suppose that mineral oil could also be used in that place and then also the belt to let your using forever but it's working on the ground. I would think backing it up on a set of ramps would cure that problem because I was watching on do the Lefty Lucy plug that ranch didn't come much below the bottom of the tire so I would think just a pair of ramps or a Jack would do it. The low profile wrench profile Ranch wow what a great idea. I do talk to text so I'm not going to correct the profile Ranch comment because it's extra funny LOL it's amazing what technology here's a saying and interprets no connotation whatsoever

Ford told me 100k miles

Too bad Ford doesn't care enough I'm it's production value to create the diff for serviceability.

I worked on this differential. You don't need to change the oil. It's good for about 200K miles or more. You're wasting your time, money, and energy doing this at 72000 miles. You're also using the wrong oil. If anything, you just reduced your bearing and gear durability significantly.

Leave it to ford

thats a plug not a bolt just sayin lol

u think this is bad? wait til u gotta change the water pump !! might be easier changing the engine , no joke. i did it. I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER NEW FORD EVER IF I CAN HELP IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing - you've got a lift and some tools but not enough sense to use some eye protection. You'd set a much better example if you did.