obscurotron
Adventurer
Truck: '04 Tacoma 4x4/AT/V6, 56K miles on the clock.
Issue: The transfer case oozes fluid, but intermittently. It *appears* the leak is from the rear or sides of the shifter base (similar to what others have posted about here in the last year or two).
Driving around town, the thing stays dry. Heading up I-80 Thursday for a camping trip, I stopped around 3000 ft to make a pit stop and smelled gear oil. Looked underneath and I had oil streaming down both sides of the t-case, and the top of the t-case, behind the shifter base, was wet (puddled). I wasn't beating on the truck, just cruising easy.
I never do water crossings or mudding - 99.99% of my offroading is on dirt roads of various quality (or lack thereof), in the desert or high mountains. The breather-jiggler vent for the dead space between the transmission and the t-case was free and wiggly and the breather hose from the t-case shifter base to the dead space's nipple appeared clear and intact.
Why intermittent and what should I replace first? The shifter base gaskets or the t-case shifter seat or just do it all at once and cross my fingers?
It was so bad I ended up *******canning my trip to the desert with a bunch of friends this weekend. Talk about bummed. Didn't want to be 100+ miles from the nearest paved road and kill something in the transfer case.
Oh, also, the t-case is NOT overfilled. Last fluid change I did 7 months ago I let it drain completely and then put in 1 quart (manual calls for 1.1 quarts) of 75w-90 Valvoline. And since then I've done a long drive from the Bay Area up to Bear Trap Basin just a couple of weeks ago, and not so much as a burp. And it was HOT that day. Thursday was early AM and relatively cool
Dare I ask, could there be something else going on here? The last service I did to the truck a weekend or two ago was an engine oil change (no leaks, the fluid is in fact gear oil, smell alone confirms that) and a drain and fill of the ATF (drained 4.5 qt of ATF, put 4.5 qt of ATF back in). That's IT. I haven't touched the transfer case in 7 months, like I said.
There was still fluid in the t-case so I limped it to a dealer and left it there (no place to work on it). And there it sits. They can't even find the part #s for the parts I'm thinking might need to be replaced.
How much can the 1 quart of gear oil expand and if it built pressure, the breather should take care of that w/out blowing seals, no?
Dang truck.
Issue: The transfer case oozes fluid, but intermittently. It *appears* the leak is from the rear or sides of the shifter base (similar to what others have posted about here in the last year or two).
Driving around town, the thing stays dry. Heading up I-80 Thursday for a camping trip, I stopped around 3000 ft to make a pit stop and smelled gear oil. Looked underneath and I had oil streaming down both sides of the t-case, and the top of the t-case, behind the shifter base, was wet (puddled). I wasn't beating on the truck, just cruising easy.
I never do water crossings or mudding - 99.99% of my offroading is on dirt roads of various quality (or lack thereof), in the desert or high mountains. The breather-jiggler vent for the dead space between the transmission and the t-case was free and wiggly and the breather hose from the t-case shifter base to the dead space's nipple appeared clear and intact.
Why intermittent and what should I replace first? The shifter base gaskets or the t-case shifter seat or just do it all at once and cross my fingers?
It was so bad I ended up *******canning my trip to the desert with a bunch of friends this weekend. Talk about bummed. Didn't want to be 100+ miles from the nearest paved road and kill something in the transfer case.
Oh, also, the t-case is NOT overfilled. Last fluid change I did 7 months ago I let it drain completely and then put in 1 quart (manual calls for 1.1 quarts) of 75w-90 Valvoline. And since then I've done a long drive from the Bay Area up to Bear Trap Basin just a couple of weeks ago, and not so much as a burp. And it was HOT that day. Thursday was early AM and relatively cool
Dare I ask, could there be something else going on here? The last service I did to the truck a weekend or two ago was an engine oil change (no leaks, the fluid is in fact gear oil, smell alone confirms that) and a drain and fill of the ATF (drained 4.5 qt of ATF, put 4.5 qt of ATF back in). That's IT. I haven't touched the transfer case in 7 months, like I said.
There was still fluid in the t-case so I limped it to a dealer and left it there (no place to work on it). And there it sits. They can't even find the part #s for the parts I'm thinking might need to be replaced.
How much can the 1 quart of gear oil expand and if it built pressure, the breather should take care of that w/out blowing seals, no?
Dang truck.
