Transfer case leak

My '04 has been marking it's territory. Since my other two (GM) trucks have 350K and 230K, with multiple leaks, I wasn't astounded. Looked up the required fluid - gear lube - now that was a new one! Jacked/blocked it up and admired the sling pattern at the rear output shaft. I figured it was going to be pretty dry in there, but one good squirt was all it took. IDK if it had been overfilled in a previous lifetime, or the fact that I'm towing a boat @highway speeds on the regular, had anything to do with it... Anyway - bullet dodged

 

Did you replace the output shaft seal? Pretty common for these to go out. Otherwise that leak may continue. The seal itself is around $15-18 MSRP from Toyota.

I went through this on my front output shaft, not too difficult to replace -- drop the driveshaft and there is a staked nut on the companion flange. Hammer out the stake and you can easily get the companion flange off with an electric impact and the truck in 4WD.



There's also a small seal inside the companion flange itself. I replaced mine since it was cheap.



This is a good video on the replacement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YuY6rv1hkE

 

I did not = I've got bigger fish to fry with this truck

 

Question for you all in this post:

-I’ve got a Canada truck (in US now) I’ve had a small transfer case seal leak for a year now, has been monitored every oil change. Not severe, but it’s likely time to get it fixed.

After driving for 20 ish minutes there is usually a brake like smell, when I turn off and get out. but I’ve concluded it’s not brakes but maybe a transmission smell? The smell is like a hot smell, if that makes sense, something’s heated or overheated.

It’s not overbearing strong smell, but it’s there consistently.

Thoughts on if it’s related to transfer case seal? Or transmission getting hot?

 

Using OP's picture as a reference, it's likely that you're slinging gear oil onto the nearby exhaust.

 

@des2mtn with the real gold here. Park it in 4wd when your ready to do the work and use an impact to break the nut free (after unstaking).

Whatever you do do not use a breaker bar with pry bar leveraged against the pinion guard.


When yours starts to look as dirty as mine it's well past time to do the seals.

 

Are you in a 2014? This is the 1st(best gen) section. Try here:

https://www.tundras.com/forums/2-5-gen-tundras-2014-2021.27/