Changed the powertrain fluids in my 6k miles 2020 4runner.

Hey everyone. I am one of those guys that always believed in changing "break in fluids" and changed the fluids in my front/rear diff and also the transfer case at 6300 miles. I used Royal Purple 75W/90 for the front and rear diff's and Royal Purple Sycromax for the transfer case. While I was at it I changed the needle bushing in the front driver side diff with a ECG bushing. A couple of observations......
1-) The rear diff fluid was BLACK and the drain plug magnet contained alot of break in metal. I raised the driver side axles and added a few pumps of clean fluid to get ALL of the black fluid out.

2-) The front Diff and transfer case was nowhere near as bad as the rear diff but I am happy I did them as well.

3-) removing the needle bushing and installing the bushing in the front different went smooth and took about 2 hours. I took my sweet ass time doing it and very happy with results.


Even with my SCS wheels, lift and 285 Toyo's my 4runner drives incredibly smooth and there is absolutely no vibrations or shimmy in my steering wheel. My MPG was a constant 17.6 on the highway at 70MPH going to work . With everything done (same road, ambient temp and tire pressure) I am now getting 19.1

I am very happy with the results and was well worth the $200 in material.

 

What is this “needle bushing” you speak of?

 

sorry. I meant needle bearing. Toyota uses a needle bearing on driver side of front diff for the cv axle while the pass side is a ball bearing. The needle bearing is known to cause vibration due to play. When I changed my oil for the first time I grabbed the cv axles and was shocked how much it moved up and down right at the front diff carrier. For $45 it was well worth it. I know alot of Tacoma guys do this upgrade.

 

So you upgraded or just replaced? Hadn’t heard of any issues. Where’d you buy the bearing from?

 

replaced, google East Coast Gearing

 

You replace the “needle bearing” to a flat bearing. Eliminates the possibility of the “needles” breaking off and grenading the front diff. Super common on Tacoma’s, hit or miss on the 4runners it looks like.

 

Your rear diff one concerns me enough to make me want to change it out soon, just rolled over 30k also. Thanks for the info!

 

Changed out my fluids at 20k and had a little nasty to the rear diff as well. Same results I had with my new Tacoma’s- must be a Toyota thing
Generally, the needle bearing doesn’t show its arse unless you lift. If vibes present post lift then it’s a good point to check and the rest is simply put it in 4x4’to see if the vibes go away

 

Everyones rear diff oil is black. It's the additives Toyota puts in it.

You could change it at 1 mile and it would still be black.

If you want to know when an appropriate time to change it would be, send a small sample to Blackstone, have them analyze it, and let them recommend a change interval.

 

My needle bearing was acting up at stock height. Swapped it out for ECGS bushing and it's been smooth ever since.

 

That’s annoying but at least ya got it fixed.

 

I have a 2020 with 1500 miles on it. I just installed a stage 2 lift and immediately had the needle bearing symptoms come up. There was a TSB on previous years, any idea if there still is for 2020? I'm supposed to get an alignment on tuesday but thinking of just canceling, parking the vehicle and ordering the bushing to install next weekend. My understanding is I will need an alignment after. Can you confirm? I wasn't sure if you needed to break the upper ball joint and remove the coil to get access.

 

I didn't remove the coil or break the upper ball joint to install the ECGS bushing. Didn't get an alignment afterwards either.

 

Thanks. If you didn't break the upper it would make sense to not need an alignment. It doesn't look like a terrible job, just really socks to have to so on a brand new vehicle. I will see what Toyota says. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will still do it under warranty despite the lift, but im preparing to just need to do the job.

 

Way overkill maintenance. I have a 2005 V6 4runner with 150,000 and change the oil and filter every 4000 miles. I had the dealer service the tranny (at 100,000 miles according to TM) - and they drain and fill 5 quarts. They change the filter too.

Never had a problem with this truck except starters failing every 4 years. Easy and cheap replacement if you get AM at Amazon. Two bolts and a good mechanic can replace one in the drive way.

I did the rear differential at 110,000 miles with 3 quarts of Valvoline. Simple drain and fill - to over fill drips - than replace the plugs. Taking into the dealer for this D/F is crazy. A 10 year old can do it in a driveway.

There is no front wheel differential on a 2WD.

I change the oil and filter myself every 5000 miles. I use the same washer - although I have new ones in the garage. No drips either way. Just don't overtighten DP.

 

To be honest, Toyota will probably put a new diff on your truck (they have a TSB for this issue, just like the Tacoma does). It fixes the problem until the next needle bearing goes out.

If you want to save yourself time, just do the ECGS bushing now and forget about it for the rest of the trucks life.

 

Anyone have a link to the TSB?

 

If they want to replace the diff, I will let them. I shouldn't have to sink money into a 2020 with 1500 miles on it. That said, they will do it once and then i'm doing the bushing. If they give me even the slightest fight, I'll probably just walk away and do the bushing. The truck is with my off road guy right now. He is going to do the alignment and do a solid once over on everything to make sure there are no obvious issues and we will see if it resolves it. He's optimistic that it will fix it, i'm not as much. I want to get this thing on a trail, but want to make sure it is sound first.

 

Thx, ThirdYota. Here's a link to download the TSB (*.pdf) for 2016 - 2019's: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10154805-9999.pdf

 

FWIW...I drove on my noisy needle bearing for almost 10,000 miles before replacing it with the bushing and nothing bad happened. I've read about others going for years with a failing bearing and nothing got destroyed.

Probably better to address it sooner rather than later though. Just don't think you need to worry about an immediate failure of some sort.