2014 ram 1500 front differential fluid capacity

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The Dodge Ram 1500 front differential fluid type iS75W-140 gear oil. The front differential is the last place that the power goes when Your vehicle is in four wheel drive so it is important to keep the gears in there protected. A differential uses much thicker oil than You would normally use in an engine. This is because the area of the differential is very small and gets hot with the gears rotating in it. A thinner oil would likely break down and not help protect the gears in the same way as the thicker oil. If You notice any leaks from Your front differential I recommend fixing them to prevent costly damage to the gears.

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Antonia L July 30, 2020

Dodge recommends using 75W-140 for front differentials and 80W-90 or 75W-140 for rear differentials in your Dodge Ram 1500 truck.

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Alrighty gents, as promised here is my writeup from Saturday when I finally got around to changing the front and rear diff fluids and transfer case fluid. Sorry there's not more pics, but the wife was already upset that I chose this to spend our first Saturday afternoon back together despite the fact that I told her weeks ago what and when I was going to do. She got over it and mowed the yard to pass the time, the day was productive, everything worked out :smileup:. Anyway, I don't have 3 hands.

For the front diff I used Redline 75W85-like the manual says. I know most of you just use 75W90, but I'm too OCD and since Redline and Mopar are the only two brands of 75W85 I could find, and I was going with Redline anyway I decided to just get the specified weight. I started out with 3 quarts on hand and used a little over 1.5.

For the rear I used Redline 75W140 gear oil for hypoid limited slip diffs. I also bought a bottle of their friction modifier, but I was feeling adventurous and decided not to use it. No pops turning at full lock, so it looks like there's plenty pre-mixed; after all it's not rocket science and from what I've read its a pretty standard percentage of FM to oil regardless of diff type. I had a gallon jug of it on hand and used a little over half or so.

For the T-case I just used the Mopar Borg-Warner 44-44 fluid. Since I still have no idea what exactly it is, and consequently could not in good conscience use an alternative fluid, I just picked up 2 quarts from the dealer. Maybe by the next time I do it Mopar will have graciously bestowed upon us the knowledge of what exactly it is (cough syrup? ), but until then you can't go wrong with OEM. I started with 2 quarts, spilled a bunch of it, worried about how I'd get to work if I didn't have enough and how my wife would call me an idiot , thought about how I should have bought more, and ended up with about 1/3 of a bottle left. Again, it worked out

I started with the front diff, I got the truck on ramps to mitigate the incline of my driveway and it was almost perfectly level pointed towards the street with the front on ramps. First thing you have to do is pull off the skid plates, which didn't take too long-the bolts are 13mm.

Next, I pulled the fill plug (no fluid came out) and checked the level with my pinky. My diff consumed no oil in 52,600 miles (surprise ), great; so I drained it. The diff case on these ZF 8.25s is split like a transfer case, it does not have a body and a cover like the rear diffs do or like you're probably used to, so I just drained it from the plugs. You will need an 8mm hex bit for the plugs; I didn't have one on hand, but I did fortunately have an 8mm allen wrench. Since you never really know what tools you need until after a job is done I went out and got an 8mm driver for a 3/8" drive ratchet afterwards.

Anyway, the fluid was clear and golden (like beer almost) with no metallic flakes in it. I peeped at the spider gears and ring gear through the holes and the engagement looks perfect, with no chips or anything to worry about. obviously it was not as good a look as if I had the cover off, but again, look at your diff and tell me you'd have split the diff housing.

Next, I filled it. It felt like it took forever pumping the oil into the diff, but TBH that's because I hadn't done the rear yet , and IDK how it would even be possible without a lube oil pump.

Filled it until oil started to seep out of the fill hole, put the plug back, and reinstalled the skid plate.

I re-oriented my truck so that it would face up the driveway next so that it would have a slight decline towards the drain plugs for the t case and rear diff. The rear diff has no skid plate, so it was a little quicker to do. You need a 14mm hex bit to get the drain plug out (good thing I read that on another thread here), you can't just use your breaker bar. I thought about removing the cover, but felt like it wasn't really necessary unless I found something alarming in the fluid or when I peeped in the fill/drain holes, or waved my pickup magnet around inside-I have gasket maker RTV on hand though. Oh also, none of these drain plugs are magnetic :sad:.

Fluid was till golden, but was not as clear as the front diff was-not milky. Clutch fuzz was minimal, certainly nothing I wouldn't expect to see after 52,000+ miles on the factory fill.

Nothing remarkable to post about filling the rear diff, only it took a while. I wish the pickup tube on my pump was longer; having to hold the gallon jug at an angle while also holding the pump on top at an angle that would pick up oil (the screw top on the pump was smaller than the top of the jug) and also holding the output tube in the fill hole was not a thrilling experience. The fill plug is rubber and just pops in and out; I used a putty knife to help me pry it out. It seems to seal the fill hole well.

Lastly I came to the transfer case. The first step is again, to remove the skid plate with the same 13mm hex socket you used on the other one. On these drain and fill plugs you can use a 3/8" breaker bar, but I actually used a ratchet with a 3" extension because one of the reinforcement fins for the output shaft interfered with actually moving the breaker bar very far for the fill plug. Like the diffs, no fluid ran out and the level was just below the fill hole before draining-glad to see my transfer case does not consume fluid either :i_rolleyes:.

It was at this point that I became mildly disappointed that none of these three components use the same size or (or shape for the t-case) of bit to remove the plugs. Come to think of it I kind of want to see what the drain and fill plugs on the transmission use. I guess on the bright side, both plugs on the front diff are the same as each other, and the ones on the T-case are too . I guess this is one of those miniscule details that got overlooked when designing the truck.:4-dontknow:

Anyway, the T-case fluid comes out red, and I think it could very well be transmission fluid, though IDK that it is specifically ATF+4; perhaps it has some sort of proprietary additive in it to keep the clutches working properly. I put thread sealant on the drain plug and reinstalled it, then it got interesting:

I figured that with the little squirty nozzle on the bottles it would be easy to get all the fluid out of the bottle right into the transfer case-probably because I had never changed transfer case fluid before in any vehicle. Wrong. There's not enough room between the t case body and truck body to move the bottle around so after about 4 oz were out I had to rig up a straw to the nozzle to get the bottle into a position where I could actually our the fluid out while also getting the fluid in the fill hole. It should also be noted at this time that the seam between the screw top on the bottles and the bottle threads themselves will leak. Lastly, in the interest of evacuating as much fluid from the bottle in as short a period of time as possible, I cut the nozzle too short so that the straw would barely fit over the nozzle. Like so short that once the straw got fluid in it it would keep slipping off so i had to keep the straw forced onto the nozzle while my hands (and arms, and chest) were covered in this slippery fluid. If I wasn't so pissed I'd have thought it was as funny as my wife did

In hindsight it would have been best to get a separate pump for each fluid so that none of them mixed, but frugality and convenience did not intersect at this crossroads, and I didn't want gear oil in the t-case. I'm getting two more pumps for next time, one of which will be just for the t-case.

Anyway, just like the front diff, fluid started seeping from the fill hole so I plugged it after putting some sealant on the threads, put the skid plate back on, and checked out the fluid. I was particularly curious about the T-case fluid because the manual states 120,000 mile changes, or 60 if you use 4wd frequently:

The fluid itself looked to be in good shape, but I was glad that I changed it at this interval due to the amount of clutch fuzz. Its kind of hard to see in the pics (look at the metallic grains, the large debris is dirt that fell into the drain pan when I was removing skid plates) but there is a decent amount in there, though I would not call it excessive.

Based on this, I would recommend going at least 80,000 miles on the front diff fluid, 50,000 on the rear diff, and 50,000 on the transfer case if you use it a lot.

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