I have a 2004 Lexus RX330 and the transfer case has developed a leak. About every 5,000 mi. I have to top it off with a half a quart. The car is just a beater, it's something that runs good but it's 20 years old If you get my drift. Now normally I would fix something like this but it's calling for 18 hours labor time because everything has to get dropped just to get to it. So can I use 75 w140 in the transfer case instead of the 80w90? Or does anybody know any decent stop leaks? I thought about the at205 but I don't know if I'm comfortable with dumping a stock leak in. I thought maybe thicker gear oil would be better?
Thicker gear oil in Transfer case to stop leak?
- Thread starter AMG2VETTE
- Start date
Where is it leaking from?
AT205 could work.
AT205 could work.
I had a transfer case leak in my 2005 RAV4. Took it to a transmission place and the guy told me it would cost $750 to remove and see what was wrong and the price would go up from there depending on what the problem was. I said thanks but no. He said ok, topped it up and charged me $20. That was about 240,000 miles. I continued to top it up every 5000 to 8000 miles until the transmission blew up at 400,000 miles. The transfer case in the RAV4 only held about half a quart so I'd check your capacity and top it off so that it doesn't go below half the capacity at worst. I got pretty good at topping it off. It's not that easy. I had to string together all of my socket extensions to get the proper clearance to turn the fill bolt.
That's what I might do. It holds a quart and it looks like about every 4, 000-5000 mi. It's about half a quart low so I guess what I'll do is just top it off every 2,000 mi which is a pain in the butt but it's just a work car. $2,500 to fix it just doesn't make sense on a car that's worth five grand at most. I've been looking at the AT205 as well.
dnewton3
Staff member
A repair that is probably 4x what the car is worth is not a good investment, obviously.
You can certainly try a thicker lube, but that is unlikely to stop any leaks. Once the lube warms up to full temp, it's not THAT much thicker over the alternative, to a point where it won't leak at all. It's just going to leak slower.
You can certainly try a thicker lube, but that is unlikely to stop any leaks. Once the lube warms up to full temp, it's not THAT much thicker over the alternative, to a point where it won't leak at all. It's just going to leak slower.
If you're going to go thicker than 80w-90 to slow down a leak, 85w-140 is where I'd start. Some stop leak might not hurt.
I'd go with SAE 250 before trying that.
Only gear case I’d put that in is a lawn mower transmission
Let me guess, you’re from Nebraska?
I found an 2017 18 row corn head for $97,000. (JD)
Couldn’t find a price on a new one.
I follow Laura Farms on YouTube.
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You could try Blue Devil stop leak, they make one that specs diff on the back label. I used it and it worked pretty well a couple times but if you are saying cover, it may not work. Worth a $10 gamble, I would try the 75w140 as well.