AEV Jeep Wrangler Rubicon EcoDiesel Build Up - Episode 1 of 4 Teardown & Diff Covers

hey Rob here for Quadratec.com you know the JL Rubicon really is a great vehicle it's very capable right off of the dealership lot but well here at Quadratec you know we just can't leave well enough alone i'm sure you guys know it as well we can definitely make some improvements to this vehicle that's going to make it even better out on some trails now today that's the project that i'm kicking off over the next few weeks we've got a whole host of products we're going to be installing on this Wrangler to improve everything from wheels and tires to suspension bumpers lighting recovery you name it i've got a very large pile of stuff that's been accumulating over here in the corner of the shop for some time now i'm not going to show you guys it just yet you gotta hang on for that but as i go along and build up this vehicle i'm gonna be giving you an in-depth look a closer look at those products while i'm installing them so if you haven't already you're definitely gonna wanna make sure that you're subscribed right here to our youtube channel and make sure you hit that notification button as well so you'll be sure to be the first to know when we upload a new video which should be every friday for the next couple weeks as i complete this build up now we offer a wide selection of really really great products for your Jeep here at Quadratec but there is one company that we've had a pretty long relationship with i've always enjoyed working with them and i've always really admired the products that they produce can you guys guess who i'm talking about yet i'm not going to tell you i'm going to keep you on the hook for just a few minutes more so we made a phone call and we ran through everything we wanted to improve and as i mentioned i've got a very large pile of products sitting here ready to go ready to be installed on our Wrangler now before we dive into what those products are i wanted to introduce you to our project vehicle this is a 2021 Snazzberry Rubicon JL equipped with the 3 liter ecodiesel under the hood now it belongs to Matt who is our content editor here at Quadratec now chances are if you've been out to one of our local events here in West Chester or hey maybe even to easter Jeep safari or cross paths with us at maybe the sema show or another auto show you probably ran into Matt now if you've headed over to the torque section on the website and read any of those great how-to articles blog posts or industry news pieces you've probably read some of Matt's writing and he's one of our editors that puts together those great pieces for you over there and if you haven't checked those out already you'll definitely want to hit that info button to head over to the torque section after this video of course and check out some of those really great how-to articles and industry news pieces now i'm sure that he's going to be chronicling the build-up of his Wrangler over there in written form as we do it here on youtube and he'll definitely be giving you guys some updates after we finish the build-up of his Wrangler now he's owned it for a couple months now and put a few thousand miles on it and he's had the chance to get out to some of our local off-road parks Rausch Creek Off Road Park Anthracite Otdoor Adventure Area and well it is a Rubicon as you would expect it performed really well especially with that diesel under the hood but in stock form it definitely had some shortcomings he's got quite a few scratches on the underside of this vehicle on the skid plates and on some of the wheels and on those rock sliders as well to prove where he got hung up but that's okay because we're going to be fixing all that over the next couple weeks so without keeping you guys on the hook any longer let me go let me go grab some of these don't go anywhere i'm going to grab some of these parts all right so you can see i've got a set of mickey thompson baja boss all terrains 37 1250s that should perform excellent for us on this vehicle whether we're on the road on the trail whether Matt's out for a multi-day adventure or just a weekend trip up to the local off-road park the baja boss all-terrain should be a perfect setup for this vehicle in addition to those tires don't go anywhere i wasn't kidding when i said i had a huge pile of parts all right so as you guys can clearly see we caught up our friends at american expedition vehicles AEV and they've got us covered with just about everything we need to build up this Wrangler one of the things that i've always really really liked about AEV is the level of detail that they pay to these products that they produce yes while avs products may be on the higher end of the price point well you really are getting a very high quality part a oe quality part that you can rest easy knowing that well you know in a few years after installing these parts in your vehicle they're still going to look just as good as the day you put them on albeit with maybe a few beauty marks that they picked up along the way through the course of your adventures now to just give you a quick overview of what we have here on the pallet i've got a set of wheels i'm not going to tell you what wheels yet you're going to have to hang on to see what wheels we install on here of course we've got some differential covers to add some additional protection to the underside of this Wrangler we've got a suspension and this is again going back to one of those things i really like about AEV as i mentioned this Wrangler is equipped with a three liter eco diesel so the suspension we got is specifically tuned to handle the extra weight of that diesel up front in this Wrangler now as you can see we've also got some lights on here and well we've got their new RX front and rear bumper and tire carrier to get installed now as i mentioned when we're done this thing is going to be totally transformed and ready to tackle just about any type of terrain we throw at it you're definitely going to make sure that you're subscribed to the channel so you can follow the build up along the way i'm going to be giving you guys an in-depth closer look at a lot of these fantastic parts while i'm installing them so i thought today to kick everything off well since we've got everything here i'm going to go ahead and start getting some of the products out of the boxes go ahead and start well stripping down the Wrangler and getting rid of anything we're not going to need any longer so that well we can move on to the fun stuff so at this point we've got the front and rear bumpers removed from the Jeep and before i dive into the suspension i thought we'd take the opportunity to add a little additional protection to the front and rear axle in the way of some new AEV high strength nodular iron diff covers now as you can see i already went ahead and drained our front axle and removed that factory diff cover now before we take a look at the new diff cover anytime you're performing a diff service it's always the perfect opportunity to just inspect everything inside of your axle housing from your ring gear to your spider gears and pinion gear and make sure there's no damage that has occurred of course this Jeep is virtually brand new so we shouldn't expect to see anything wrong inside of our differential housing the factory drain bolt actually has a magnet built right onto it to help collect any metal particles that may have accumulated there in your differential housing now what you really want to look for are larger pieces of metal here we see just a thick gear oil that's got some very very fine metal shavings accumulated in it that's all perfectly normal to see now if we take a look at the two diff covers here on the cart you'll immediately notice the advantage you can gain by switching from this well very lightweight thin stamped diff cover from the factory to this heavy duty high strength nodular iron diff cover from AEV and one thing i really like we flip it over and check out the inside right there made right here in the usa now first off you can see that that entire diff cover is made from a much much thicker material than that lightweight stamped housing and that means it's going to be able to stand up to those direct impacts to the face of the diff cover by any potential rocks you may accidentally encounter out on the trail to help lessen the chance that something is going to puncture right through that cover itself now the other added benefit as you can see is just how much material we have around the mounting surface of the AEV cover if we start at the top half you'll see we've got about 3 8 inches of material here now as we move our way down to the lower half of that cover well that steps up to a full half inch of material much more substantial than if we take a look at that factory cover we've got well less than about an eighth inch of material and that's going to help to resist from that diff cover peeling back away from the axle housing especially on that rear cover if we're sliding off an obstacle or dragging across a rock well that factory stamped cover could potentially get peeled right back like a tin can allowing all your precious gear oils to run right out of your axle that's just something you're not going to have to worry about with this high strength cover from AEV now another benefit by having that thick material on the mounting surface there we can use a socket cap bolt to hold the new cover in place and once they're installed you can see they're perfectly flush with the actual cover which means we don't have to worry about damaging those bolts if we make contact with the rock on the trail we're always going to be able to get a tool in there so that we can pull those bolts back out and perform a future diff service now another thing that i really like that Jeep has done is switch to this reusable gasket here which makes installing your new AEV cover very easy we don't have to fumble with getting old rtv off of the axle housing or creating a new gasket we can simply line up this reusable gasket on the back side of our new AEV cover and then start by finger tightening those bolts to hold the cover in place we can come back and torque those bolts to between 18 and 22 foot-pounds in a nice even criss-cross pattern with the differential cover installed now we can check out two more features that i really like on the face of the AEV cover here i'm actually going to grab our factory diff cover first to show of course we have our fill plug right there on the face of the cover now that plug also serves another function and that is an oil level indicator as we're filling our differential up with fresh gear oil when it starts to weep from that hole we know we've got the appropriate amount of fluid in our differential and of course we can go ahead and put that plug back in place now AEV has actually given us two fill plugs on their diff cover we've got one here in the factory location of course that's going to allow us to either you know fill that differential up with some fresh gear oil if we like but it's also positioned at the correct height to act as that indicator for us when fluid starts weeping from that hole we're gonna know that we're at the appropriate amount of fluid and we can go ahead and install that plug now it is worth noting on a side note that anytime you're completing a differential service you should always inspect and top off your diff fluid with the vehicle parked on level ground with the weight of the vehicle and suspension down on the axle you want to do that of course because here up on the lift with the suspension at full droop well the angle of that axle could change slightly and with it slightly rotated forward well it could lead to us under filling that differential with oil something you definitely don't want to do so always make sure even if you're completing the job up on a lift or on jack stands that you do your final check with the vehicle parked down on level ground now i mentioned there is a second fill plug and AEV has put that right up here at the top of the differential cover we've got this great oversized fill plug now that not only is going to make it much easier for us to add fresh gear oil to our differential during a service but it's also a great inspection port so with a flashlight it's going to allow us to actually inspect our ring gear teeth we can grab the drive shaft and spin that around so we can get a complete look at our ring gear there it's also going to allow us to inspect for any chances of possible water ingress all without having to remove the cover or even drain the fluid from our axle this oversized plug is also using a nice o-ring on here which means you're going to be able to remove and reinstall that plug just as easily whether you're here in your garage or in your driveway as you will on the side of the trail without the need to have any kind of thread sealant or teflon tape to make sure that you don't have any leaks when you reinstall that plug now i'm gonna go ahead and get our front axle wrapped up here fill it with some fresh gear oil then we're gonna move on to the rear and get that rear cover swapped out as well and then next week well it's time to move on to the suspension now if you guys want to get more information or to purchase an AEV high strength differential cover for your Jeep you can click that info button to head over to quartertech.com of course if you have any comments or questions about the covers or how to get them installed you can always leave this for me down in the comments section below or contact us directly at any of the options on the screen and as always if you haven't already and you like these videos do me a huge favor go ahead and hit that thumbs up button and don't forget to hit that subscribe button as well as the notification icon so be sure to catch the rest of our AEV project build up as well as plenty more until next time i'm Rob i'll see you guys out on the trail