2002 Differential

Hi Folks, new here. Have 2002 E825, been running great for past 7 years. Noticed more noise up front recently. It certainly isn’t obvious where I can add oil. Anyone know if it can be done and how? Many thanks.

Okay, found the location on another site thread. One would have thought the GEM car manual would have had it indicated…Thanks all.

Where did you find the info on the diff–I want to check mine as well and haven’t found the instructions yet. Thanks.

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Its a good idea to drain the more than 10 year old oil and refill. It is likely dirty. There is no drain plug. Suck the old oil out through the fill plug. Most of us agree that 80W90 gear oil is the best to use. Fill back up to the plug on level ground. The factory manuals give no information about the differential.

Daniel

Stupid question. I haven’t found the differential cover or the oil drain plug. Couldn’t one use an oil extractor to remove the oil? I’m quite familiar with boats and extracting the oil through the dip stick. This is often the only way to remove the oil. Same goes for the transmission, you have to suck it out via the tiny fill hole. Couldn’t this technique be used for the GEM differential?

The differential oil in the GEM is removed by extracting it through the fill plug. SAE 30 is recommended by the factory, however, many use 80W90 gear oil instead. I use 80W90 in all four of our GEM cars.

Daniel

The fill plug is the Rubber plug in the differential cover (Stamped sheet metal cover in the bottom of the differential) Lift the edge of the plug and pull it off with a pair of pliers.

My differential was very noisy so I use 140 gear oil with a heavy dose of cork. Lots quieter.