My 2000 Forester says Differentials fluid change at 15,000 miles for
severe service like mountain driving, towing and very hot(desert
temps) with mostly stop and go driving like downtown Chicago. It's
printed in my warranty and service booklet. eddie

Hi,

What fluid does the diff in the Forester use?

I'd base my decision on that... my old Loyale uses hypoid oil (80W-90 or
close) and calls for 30k mile changes. But it's not AWD--the xfer case
is just loafing most of the time, so there's probably less contamination
of the fluid w/o the clutches of AWD. The oil looks pretty clean when it
comes out at 30k, though there is that nice hint of a metallic sheen
from wear particles (at 360k miles, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it,
though!)

OTOH, I have a Camry, FWD w/ an auto, that has a separate diff from the
trans, yet it uses ATF just like the trans. Toyoya calls for 30k mile
changes of both trans and diff--previous owner always had both changed
at 15k, which I think is ok cuz only 2 1/2 qts drains from the trans,
and I'm not all that sure ATF is the best thing for diff gears, plus
there's only about 3/4 qt in there anyway. It's gone almost 230k miles
on that schedule.

So, I'd kind of want to look at what kinda juice is in there before
deciding whether it needs to go at 15k.

Rick