P38A Diff oil level

In the manual it says 1.7 litres, but whilst filling up waiting for the fill plug to start dripping I noticed I was putting in 2 litres and counting. Made sure the vehicle was on flat surface, went through all the height settings and the level was still below the line. I have to mention that I took out exactly 1.7 litres. Can anybody shed some light on this? I feel like I'm overlooking something very obvious.

Thanks,
Matt

I wouldn't worry too much. As long as it drips out the fill hole it must be full. Sure it is level left to right?

It is level left to right, front to back. So I should go ahead and keep filling until it drips? It's weird because online I see people putting in 1.6 or 1.7 and it's full

The only place it can go is along the axle and out past the seals at the hub end. If there's nothing leaking out (and you definitely replaced the drain plug!) then I would keep going and look for drips!

Maat said:

It is level left to right, front to back. So I should go ahead and keep filling until it drips? It's weird because online I see people putting in 1.6 or 1.7 and it's full

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I can honestly say I have never measured the amount of oil in or out on the diffs, I just keep filling until it drips out of the filler hole.

Just cos you got that much out doesn't mean it was full in the first place, it just means that's what you had left .

I am with Data, Never measure what comes out just fill to correct level. Dont really measure that accurately. Always have more to hand than the manual says and only shake the last half used bottle and take a guess at what was used..

J

Thanks for the advice everyone, just had to make sure. It ended up taking around 2.3l

Grrrrrr said:

The only place it can go is along the axle and out past the seals at the hub end. If there's nothing leaking out (and you definitely replaced the drain plug!) then I would keep going and look for drips!

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Do you mean if it is overfilled it *will* go past the seals? I just changed the oil after replacing one of the axle seals that was splashing oil everywhere around the wheel arch, it looked very bad and the inner spring was missing, I had to fish it out from the halfshaft.

Maat said:

Do you mean if it is overfilled it *will* go past the seals? I just changed the oil after replacing one of the axle seals that was splashing oil everywhere around the wheel arch, it looked very bad and the inner spring was missing, I had to fish it out from the halfshaft.

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The oil always reaches the seals, centrifugal force ensures that when cornering.

That makes perfect sense, haven´t thought of it