Maintenance of 4 wheel drive transfer case

TN Taco

TN Taco

Active Member
I took my 2020 Tacoma in for the 60K mile service and all I needed was the oil change and tire rotation. They tried to upsell me on spark plug changes and changing the grease in my differential and transfer case. I use my 4 wheel drive occasionally and the cost seemed excessive. What are your thoughts on when this needs to happen. I was thinking at about 100K miles and maybe not even the spark plugs then.
 
I plan to change my plugs in my 2020 3.5 at 60k miles, and do the differential, and transfer case fluids at 30k miles...same as I did for my tundra. I mostly used 4wd in the winter weather towing a trailer, or pulling my boat out in summer. I realize it's a bit early for the gear oil, but from past experience it needed to be done. If an automatic I feel 60k miles 4qt drain, and refill with toyota atf only. Could be sooner if I feel the trans isn't behaving quite right.
 
I never see a dealer for any of that simple maintenance crap that I can do myself. I trust a couple toyota dealers here for any of that, but their charges can be life altering, plus its always a pita to make a service appointment, drive there, then wait 1/2 the day till its finished.
 
25 years ago the dealer i bot my rig at used to have the convenient packages for 5k 10k 15k 30k 60k 90k all laid out nice you knew what to expect
+ a set package price so i knew what to budget for
now its literal CHAOS in there these days
 
i am confused if the transfer case takes the exact SAME gear oil weights that the front and rear diffs do?

i know a manual transmission is different type but what about the 4wd boxes?
 
tacojoel said:
I never see a dealer for any of that simple maintenance crap that I can do myself. I trust a couple toyota dealers here for any of that, but their charges can be life altering, plus its always a pita to make a service appointment, drive there, then wait 1/2 the day till its finished.
Click to expand...
i loathe getting that take-down-tool out to lower the spare tire to reach the rear diff easy with no issues plenty of shoulder room
 
JayQQ97 said:
i am confused if the transfer case takes the exact SAME gear oil weights that the front and rear diffs do?

i know a manual transmission is different type but what about the 4wd boxes?
Click to expand...
Some of those toyota 4wd trucks took atf in the transfer case, so its good to check the owners manual.
 
JayQQ97 said:
i loathe getting that take-down-tool out to lower the spare tire to reach the rear diff easy with no issues plenty of shoulder room
Click to expand...
Buy or borrow a set of ramps for more clearance. Rear diff, and transfer case are easy without ramps. Usually the transfer case gear oil is different than the diff's. I can tell you, the stuff for my tacoma is a special 75 W fluid, due to the electronic's involved for extreme cold weather use. Redline is recently offering something very close that costs alot less. The toyota transfer fluid is super expensive. I've found using a pump to refill these units works best.
 
Thanks, I suspect I will take the advice and have this done before the winter here. We don't get much snow but when we do I take off and look for some fun hills. The dealer was going to charge me $445 just to change the diff and transfer case oil, seemed excessive to me.
My neighborhood shop will most likely be half of that.
Thanks.
 
TN Taco said:
Thanks, I suspect I will take the advice and have this done before the winter here. We don't get much snow but when we do I take off and look for some fun hills. The dealer was going to charge me $445 just to change the diff and transfer case oil, seemed excessive to me.
My neighborhood shop will most likely be half of that.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

i asked a local quickieLube shop about how much per gear box and THEY also said 100$ each
i was astounded at that cost... 30 years ago it was no more than 20$ each at the same quick lube shop
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top