My dealership is like 70 miles away so I took my Lr3 to valvoline for oil change and rear diff change.

8 quarts of Val synthetic and ? quarts for the rear diff was like 170.00.

When I went to get gas I popped the hood to find they pulled the battery cover and the one on opposite side (probably searing for a air filter) and they put it together with clips on the inside (vs outside) they were loose. Also they pulled off the rubber water gasket messing with the covers.

20 minutes of fiddling and some greasy hands I got it back to where it should be but damn, how hard is it to put a freaking cover on?

I don't think they even found the real air filter as it has screws (too much work for them)

I don't think they are much cheaper than the dealer but saved me 2 hours of driving and gas.

Not sure I trust them for another change.

 

You might enjoy a download of the shop manual, in links below. You can carry it on smart phone or USB drive, and even print out pages of how to do it once you find an indy shop you like. Or DIY.

Lube shops depend on cheap labor due to high turn over. It is the old rule of cheap, fast, and good. Choose any two.

 

How much fluid does a LR3 rear diff hold?

I think the bill said 8 Quarts engine and something like 6 quarts for rear.

One of those manuals said 1.1 quart for the rear diff.

 

Depends on whether you have the locking rear differential or open. But I don't recall it being anywhere near 6 quarts for the diff. More like 1.5

 

They looked up the diff, said it was NON electronic and no its not the locking one. Standard rear diff.

 

Open Unit:
Castrol SAF–XO
Initial fill:
1.23 liters / 2.59 US pints
Service fill:
1.18 liters / 2.49 US pints

Electronic Unit:
Castrol BOT 720
Initial fill:
1.77 liters / 3.74 US pints
Service fill:
1.72 liters / 3.63 US pints

Front Differential:
Castrol SAF–XO
Initial fill:
0.68 liters
1.44 US pints
Service fill:
0.61 liters
1.29 US pints

 

It takes 3-3.5 to do front and rear together. 6 is way excessive, but honestly, $170 for an oil service and rear diff service is an OK price, assuming they used synthetic oil for the engine and synthetic gear lube.

However, being a "quick lube", I'm willing to bet they used a crap filter and didn't reset the service light.

Way too many times do I get a LR in the shop with a "grease monkey" oil sticker and the instrument cluster shows -21,000 for service LOL

 

Thanks for the info on the manuals.

I noticed LR3 has a front differential and I think they only did the rear.

Is the front just as easy for a oil change shop to do?

My car is 84,000 miles. Working well, looks like new still.

The only things that have been done on it are.

- Rear Diff fluid
- regular oil changes
- tires
- Front control arms
- Air suspension motor replaced
- brakes

I'm trying to think of what needs to be done next.

?
- front differential fluid
- Transmission/transaxel fluid ?
- Spark plugs
- Injector cleaning

I like to change things before they break if possible. Any suggestions on maintenance in the 80,000 mile range is appreciated.

 

The first thing I did when I got my LR3 with about 70,000 miles on it was to give it an oil change and change the rear differential fluid and the transfer case fluid. I would have changed the front diff fluid except that the front diff had been replaced about 15,000 miles previously, so I figured the fluid was pretty new already.

I would done the transmission fluid as well (or perhaps paid somebody to do it), but I actually started developing a leak at the back of the transmission, so I had that fixed under warranty which entailed changing about half of the fluid anyway. I wish they had flushed all of the fluid out (which is what I asked them to do), but on my parts sheet, it only listed 4-5 quarts of tranny fluid.

I don't think the LR3 requires spark plugs yet, but the one thing that I might do as preventive maintenance is the PCV valve. They are about $50, but these parts always seems to fail for me and I decided to do mine recently. It's literally about a 60 second job and I'm glad I did mine because it looks like I was starting to get oil seepage around the valve... perhaps too much crankcase pressure as the result of a failing valve?

There's also no reason to do brakes until they are needed. These brake pads and rotors (while fairly heavy and cumbersome) are quite easy to replace. There's a lot of room under this truck, so it's easy to crank on things like the carrier bolts. The most difficult part for me was adjusting the stupid parking brake after replacing the rear rotors. But even that wasn't really bad... I just feel like complaining. However, I might consider flushing your brake fluid. This is often overlooked by people, and I never quite trust that a used car I've purchased has ever had this done. Typically, brake fluid should be flushed every 2-3 years or so, but I doubt that many people actually do this. This can lead not only to a spongy pedal feel, but also corrosion of the brake lines and parts as water is absorbed by the fluid over time. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I believe the LR3 takes that Super DOT 4 fluid... special low viscosity stuff. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The other thing that I would be concerned about by taking the car to a quick "Jiffy Lube" type place is that there is a good chance they will not fill your rear diff correctly IMHO. Most cars I've dealt with in the past use the fill hole as the level line indicator, meaning that when fluid starts to seep out of the fill hole, the diff is "full". This isn't the case with the LR3. You need to actually put in the correct about of fluid and it will not get high enough to seep out of the fill hole. This means that if they DID fill to the point where it started coming out, then the diff is overfilled.

But, this is coming from a person who has had nothing but bad experiences from indy shops. I try to do everything myself since I am the only one I trust anymore.