For those of you waiting 'till 30k to change the differential fluid should look at these photo's. I have 14,500 miles on my 2001 GS300 and this is what was on the drain plug magnet .

 

This is the drain plug with all the fine metal shaving's on it. Bad picture I know.

 

That looks like you have alot of miles on your car. Do you drive hard on your car? You make me want to change mine soon. Thanks for the info and pics

 

The magnetic plug trap all the small metal particles. I changed mine fluild a while back, took a similar pix posted on my website.

here is what my plug look like at 28K miles

 

Is that magnetic drain plug standard on all GS? or aftermarket?

 

standard. (this is on the differential), the engine oil does not have a magnetic plug, but you can get an aftermarket one for that or magnetic oil filter.

 

i would like to know what kind of magnetic oil filter i could get. I like to insure myself, every little thing helps.

 

I have 14,500 miles on the car. My wife drives it, so it has some pretty easy miles on it. I was quite shocked at the size of the shaving on the end of the plug. Maybe it was something left in the diff. at the factory?? I put Mobil 1 syn. gear oil back in and I'll drain it again in another 15K to see how it does.

 

Mine was the same after 5K miles. I assume that it is the gears bedding down.

 

I think it's all good. Mine looked similar on first change and I too checked it 5K miles later and everything was great. Nice and clean, no debris.

 

I'm thinking about changing my differential fluild since in I have almost 23,000 miles on my 02 GS. Which brand is good to use on the GS differential? Any info is appreciated.

 

I just installed a used Supra TT auto LSD differential in my GS4. Before i put it in, I cleaned the outside housing, then I pulled the back cover to see how it looked inside. I don't know what year Supra this came out of or how many miles it has on it. To my suprise, it looked like brand new inside. My drain plug looked just like the ones pictured above. I have changed differential fluid in other cars as well. Those drain plugs looked the same. I cleaned everything well and sealed up the back cover. I filled it with Mobil 1 syn 75w90. It took about 1.5 quarts.

This is a great mod. I plan to get the PI TC as soon as I can afford it. I aldo put on an external hayden tranny cooler.