Hey guys,
I recently changed the rear main seal on my 2006 Toyota 4Runner. I drained the Transfer case oil in the process, and forgot to fill it up before driving again. I put probably 60 miles on it (broken up into roughly 20 mile increments) before remembering. Talk about a facepalm.
I filled up the transfer case, drove for a bit then drained the fluid and inspected it. Didn’t see any metal shavings or issues with it. So I filled it up with new fluid.
Could there be any reason for concern? Obviously no/extremely low oil is horrible for it… but I haven’t noticed anything yet anyway. Should I just pull it out and rebuild it?
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Up to you. Personally I love getting my hands dirty and would jump at the opportunity just to rebuild it to clear my mind and get myself out the house. But if it’s not making any noises I would just count yourself lucky and keep an eye on it. Most likely it may be sightly damaged and may prematurely fail but that could be way in the future.
and get myself out the house
So I’m starting to figure out the guy across the cul-de-sac, with six diesel vehicles sitting around always idling and being worked on, has figured out if he’s always got to get a vehicle going he doesn’t have to be in the house with the wife and kids.
You have successfully mated the gears.
Honestly there’s a chance some accelerated wear has occurred while there was no oil, although the residue in the case would have helped a little, but there is nothing you can do now except drive it until it stops.
Maybe check for leaks over the next few weeks in case a shaft seal has breached from dry rotation.