2013 Escalade ESV Annual Maintenance Update: the good, the bad, and the incompetent

This is pretty much normal for those front differentials. If there’s no noise or vibration, it’s fine. Just keep it full and keep driving. You’ll know when it goes bad.

91RS said:

This is pretty much normal for those front differentials. If there’s no noise or vibration, it’s fine. Just keep it full and keep driving. You’ll know when it goes bad.

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Thanks, good to know.
This is my first GM clamshell front differential. The only other front differential I have dealt with was the Dana 35 in my old Explorer.

Onward!

I got off work early this morning, so I took the opportunity to change the front differential oil. Its been almost 1000 miles. The oil that came out was not as bad as that from 12/04/22, but it was not good. It was dark and had a little sparkly bits. I refilled it with 80W-90 mineral gear oil.

Plan now is to change it a couple more times, and drive it until it quits.

skpyle said:

I got off work early this morning, so I took the opportunity to change the front differential oil. Its been almost 1000 miles. The oil that came out was not as bad as that from 12/04/22, but it was not good. It was dark and had a little sparkly bits. I refilled it with 80W-90 mineral gear oil.

Plan now is to change it a couple more times, and drive it until it quits.

Click to expand...

we had a 2002 4x4 surburban that had a noisey frt diff that was also making a lot of metal. I said I'd drive it until it quit too. Years went by and it never quit. Finally traded it in on our current Yukon.

Yep.
We shall see how long this one goes.

Had the Escalade up on jack stands today to rotate the tires. Front shocks are going out…another story.

It has been 1600 miles, so I drained the front differential oil.
It looked surprisingly clean and clear!

I refilled it again with mineral 80W-90.
I will do this again at the 145,000 mile oil change. If the differential oil is still clean and clear(or reasonably so), I will refill it with Mobil 1 Synthetic 75W-90.

I feel a little better about this front differential now after seeing this oil.

Keep your eyes peeled for a NOS diff. If you’ve got a s/c they’re used to paying the dealers hourly rate and mark up. By the time they receive the estimate for a dealer front dif swap they’ll gladly pay for a NOS part and you swapping it out. That’d likely still be cheaper than the dealer.

More slice of life updates for my Escalade:

-in May, I changed the front differential oil again. It had been around 2100 miles. Old oil looked good. I refilled it with conventional 80W-90 gear oil. Last night, as part of the annual maintenance, I drained the front differential again. It had been around 7300 miles. Old oil still looked good. No fuzz on the magnetic drain plug. I refilled it Mobil 1 Synthetic 75W-90 LS gear oil. Yes, I know it doesn't need the limited slip additive. I have found it difficult to find non-LS Mobil 1 75W-90 gear oil.

I did cheat and use a 1 gallon garden sprayer to refill the front differential. I have had problems in the past of having to crush the gear oil bottle to get it in past the front lower control arm and steering tie rod end to fill the differential. Pain in the ass. I warmed the gear oil bottles in hot water, poured it into the garden sprayer. And let the garden sprayer do the work!

I drained and refilled the rear differential. Just because. It had been around 29,000 miles. Old oil looked good. There was no fuzz on the magnetic fill plug or the magnet on the inside of the cover. And I wanted to get a closer look at the G80 locker. Nifty. Refilled the rear differential with Mobil 1 Synthetic 75W-90 gear oil, also using the garden sprayer.

I will check the condition of the front differential oil at the next annual maintenance. And change it accordingly.


As part of the annual maintenance, and since it has been 2 years and around 28,500 miles, I exchanged the transmission fluid. After removing the remote spin-on oil filter, I ran the engine to pump out 4 quarts of ATF. Then added 4qts of ACDelco synthetic Dexron VI. Repeated 4 times. Old fluid looked good, but wasn't new any more. Fluid was clean and clear on the last pump out. 16qts out, 16qts in. Or so I thought.
Installed a new WIX 51269 hydraulic filter and let the engine run to try to get the transmission fluid up to temperature. And found it was a quart low. Soo...17qts out.
Had to go get a quart of O'Reily synthetic Dexron VI.
All good now.
On a side note, I had been buying the gallon jugs of ACDelco synthetic Dexron VI, 88865618 off Amazon for around $30-31 a jug. I looked last night: $50 a jug! Grrrr...


I also drained and refilled the transfer case. Old oil was clean and clear. 1.75qts of Dexron VI every year to change transfer case fluid is cheap insurance in my mind.

I cut open the old remote transmission filter, and found absolutely nothing in the pleats! No metal, no debris, nothing. There was a tiny bit of fine black material under the spring at the inside end of the filter can. I keep a magnet attached to that end of the filter.

All in all, good annual maintenance for 2023.

Two versions of dexron VI?

I see a mineral version on summit for $32 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ado-10-9395
or a full synthetic version for $49 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ado-10-9244

I bought the mineral version to flush my trans, but haven't gotten to it yet..

I wrapped up the last of the annual maintenance for my Escalade this evening. New WIX 42488 air filter, lightly cleaned MAF, cleaned throttle body.
All good.

However...with the throttle body off, I figured I would check the torque on the front two VLOM bolts. There was none. They were pretty much finger tight.


I had been planning on doing a cooling system refresh and the Big 3 electrical upgrade after Thanksgiving. Looks like I am adding pulling the intake and torquing the VLOM bolt to that job list...

In this thread from last December, I decided to take all of your advice and not worry about replacing the VLOM gasket if it is not leaking. I will do the same now, just torque the bolts.

https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/thr...-on-2013-escalade-help-me-find-bottom.138707/