'90 Pickup 160k miles

I recently changed my diff oil and had a buildup of silver sludge on both drain plugs. Probably just enough to fill a thimble.

I'm thinking it's very fine metal chips. No idea when the oil was last changed, but it didn't appear burnt.

Should I be concerned? Anyone else seen this?

 

I wouldn't worry about it if it was like a tiny amount of silver paste like stuff. If there was chunks of any kind of metal or noise from Diff then I would get it checked out.

 

Yeah, no metal noise, and just silver 'paste.' More than I would have liked to see, but I am also leaning towards the "don't worry about it too much" side.

 

Normal. The drain plug is magnetic to catch small particles and such.

 

what he said. ^ it wouldnt hurt to flush it out with a little extra gear oil though. just my .02

 

I would run the new gear oil for about 500 miles or so and then change it again to see if anything else comes out. If its clean and there are no strange noises then all is good.