2006 Damon (Ford F53) differential fluid change madness
I'm feeling rather put out at the moment...
I just drained and refilled the rear axle on my 2006 F53 chassis Damon Daybreak. The specifications say it's a Dana 135 and to change the gear oil at 50,000 miles. It also calls out the capacity at 12 quarts. Since I'm about to hit 60,000 miles and head out on a trip I decided that I should get off my rear (no pun intended) and get this done.
First surprise is that the gear oil I drained is red. I've never seen red gear oil before and this should be the factory fill. It looks totally clean but it also looks like ATF which is kinda freaking me out.
Second surprise is that 12 quarts sure didn't come out of there. It's a lot less. So, I go to refill with Valvoline synthetic 75W-140. It takes a bit less than six quarts then overflows out the fill plug. Now I'm really getting annoyed.
So, I look over the axle and after I clean off some grease I find a label that says Ford S110. Woah! What? That's a totally different axle than is called out in the specs and the manual. In fact, I haven't found any F53 manuals that call out the S110 until many model years after mine was manufactured.
I have no idea if the maintenance schedule for the S110 calls for changing the rear axle lube every 50,000 miles or not but I'm way past that point. The question now is if it's okay to have a mix of the new gear oil and whatever the red gear oil that was in there? I see a number of different capacities for the S110 from 6.6 quarts up to 8 quarts. I figure I have about 5.5 quarts of new gear oil in there and the rest will likely be the old stuff that didn't drain out.
Any thoughts?
I just drained and refilled the rear axle on my 2006 F53 chassis Damon Daybreak. The specifications say it's a Dana 135 and to change the gear oil at 50,000 miles. It also calls out the capacity at 12 quarts. Since I'm about to hit 60,000 miles and head out on a trip I decided that I should get off my rear (no pun intended) and get this done.
First surprise is that the gear oil I drained is red. I've never seen red gear oil before and this should be the factory fill. It looks totally clean but it also looks like ATF which is kinda freaking me out.
Second surprise is that 12 quarts sure didn't come out of there. It's a lot less. So, I go to refill with Valvoline synthetic 75W-140. It takes a bit less than six quarts then overflows out the fill plug. Now I'm really getting annoyed.
So, I look over the axle and after I clean off some grease I find a label that says Ford S110. Woah! What? That's a totally different axle than is called out in the specs and the manual. In fact, I haven't found any F53 manuals that call out the S110 until many model years after mine was manufactured.
I have no idea if the maintenance schedule for the S110 calls for changing the rear axle lube every 50,000 miles or not but I'm way past that point. The question now is if it's okay to have a mix of the new gear oil and whatever the red gear oil that was in there? I see a number of different capacities for the S110 from 6.6 quarts up to 8 quarts. I figure I have about 5.5 quarts of new gear oil in there and the rest will likely be the old stuff that didn't drain out.
Any thoughts?
