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Hello lovely people,have a question about changing the oil in the transfer case of my 2.5 AWD.
Is it possible to drill a hole,tap it and put a plug in on the bottom of the case,to use as a drain?
Andy, could you do that, sure. But, I would advise against it. The case structure is weak and drilling a hole into it is not going to be helpful. Besides, you already have a drain in the transfer case. Why would you need a second one? I guess I am a little confused as to what you are attempting.
If you do some looking, the site has come up with 3 ways to change the fluid using only the factory drain hole and get the recommended 600 mls of 75W-90 full synthetic fluid back into the case. The first process simply involves jacking up one side of the car (left side) to get all the fluid out and then you put that side on the ground and then jack up the other side (right side) so the wheels are about 20 inches off of the ground. This will give you enough room in the transfer case to put the fluid. Option 2 was a member here was selling a kit that you screwed into the drain plug to replace the simple plug with a special check valve. When you added a conector, it would override the checkvalve and allow you to add or drain the fluid from the transfer case. If you do some looking here, the member may still have a kit or two available. The third option I created which was getting a 1/2" NPT to 1/4" NPT reducer (in brass) and then finding a radiator drain valve with a collar on the handle. You then insert the valve into the reducer and lock it together with some red loctite. You then file off the flats of the reducer to allow it to fit. From there, you can pull the plug, drain out the fluid, put the valve/reducer back in its place. then with the valve open, you run a hose from the collar up to the top of the engine. You then fill through the hose and when you get the necessary fluid in the transfer case, you simply close the valve and it locks the fluid in the case.
I did the tip and drain method. There are videos online using jacks and blocks of wood that look a bit dangerous. I used a set of lifting ramps and it worked great. I have a small garage and these ramps have turned out to be fabulous - like a virtual lift I can store in a corner.
I would love to meet the design engineer that thought that this method of changing the TC oil was a good idea. Then put him/her underneath the car to do it.
I would love to meet the design engineer that thought that this method of changing the TC oil was a good idea.
Officially, it's a sealed for life unit, so no changes needed. In the event a change is needed, the official procedure is to remove the transfer case and fill on the ground. Tipping the car is a work-around to avoid removal.
Sealed for life = sealed for death. Procedure in official workshop manual is to drain through the pinion seal, replace the pinion seal and fill with LHS high.
Extract from factory manual
I changed fluids when I got the car to give a known datum to start ownership.
Sealed for life = sealed for death. Procedure in official workshop manual is to drain through the pinion seal, replace the pinion seal and fill with LHS high.
Extract from factory manual
I changed fluids when I got the car to give a known datum to start ownership.
HTH, Dave
Where is a reference to the pinion seal? Do you mean the filler plug which is shown? As far as I am aware, both the draining and filling are done through this same plug, lifting one side of the car to drain and then lifting the other side to fill (as described above). As I stated above, this is the procedure used by my Jaguar dealer.
It is indeed good practice to start ownership with a replacement of ALL fluids including transmission, transfer case and differential.
The issue for the at home backyard mechanic is getting the side up 21 inches in the air without having to buy $1,000 lifts.
you can find a high lift floor Jack but they won’t fit under the car without another pre-lift. Just saying
Removing the TC oil via the pinion seal is in the Workshop Manual section 308-07. It looked like more harm than good would happen going that route so I did the tip and drain instead. HTH, Dave
Transfer box fluid change
