So I was driving down the interstate about 75 mph from IA back home to CO. I noticed from the start of the trip that I heard a low rumble, I stopped a couple of times to see if anything was obviously wrong, but didn't notice anything so I kept driving. A couple of hours into the trip I noticed that my gas mileage was 4 mpg less than usual. Well a low rumble turned into a bang and I coasted to the side of the interstate 10 hours into my trip. Then my truck then made a grinding noise like I had no transmission oil. I came to stop and put the trunk in park and turned it off.

So my transfer case was cracked wide open and is destroyed. I have many questions and the dealership won't really give me a straight answer. I am just wondering what could be the possible cause of this problem?

Also, if I just replace the transfer case without figuring out what caused it will it just happen again?

This is my first diesel truck 08' 6.4L F-250 and currently has 53,000 miles I bought it Sept 2011 and after the first free oil change the dealer noticed a crack in the transmission housing, so they replaced it under warranty. I came out of warranty since then, is it possible that previous owner was the reason for all of this damage? Should I trade the truck in or keep it as not much else can break now?

I honestly have had the 4x4 on maybe 3 or 4 times since owning the truck. One of them more recent as I was out hunting in IA. I always stop to engage the 4x4 and dis-engage. I made sure after I had it on while out in the field that I turned it off before returning to the pavement. I know for certian that the selector **** on the dash was in 2-WD while on the interstate, is it possible that it was still mechanically engaged?

After talking with the dealership, I spoke with a mechanic that said he has seen one transfer case explode and that was after the owner ran down the hwy at 60 mph in 4x4 low.

So far I am at $2,500 after tow and everything. Any ideas or feedback please let me know.

 

Just us vultures out her that want to see photos.
But really they had to replace what part of the transmission case?
could it of been the adaptor between the two ? What you need to do is
discover if it blew up because it ran out of oil or the oil went out after it
blew up. If it went because of lack of oil I would be thinking that maybe
that there was more to the other crack and it just did not get seen/fixed.
If you get a replacement transfer case you should be ok. However I would check
the drive shaft and the transmission output shaft to make sure that
nothing is bent. Once you have that all done have the shop teach you how
to check fluid levels of the transfer case. I would get a good used one
and not pay the extra $$ for one from Ford. I found you one on Ebay for you
to see
03 05 06 07 08 09 10 Ford F250 Super Duty Transfer Case | eBay

You just need to make sure it's got the same potions that yours has right now.

Sean

 

First welcome to FTE!



It almost sounds to me like the fluid leaked out and it was running dry for awhile. Blown up transfer cases are not common to hear about, and as rare as they are I haven't heard of why this happens. Considering how you heard abnormal sounds and noticed reduced efficiency quite awhile before it actually blew apart this makes sense to me. The lack of lubrication was converting your kinetic energy that your fuel paid for to heat through friction, and this would cause your fuel efficiency to go down as well as eventually cause transfer case failure.

Unlikely at best, there's not much that's external to the case that could cause this. Short of running the new t-case out of fluid I couldn't imagine how this could happen again.

I don't think so, and to be honest there's no way the previous owner would have done anything to crack the case. Remember that if the dealer that covered it under warranty had any reason to believe that it was caused by anything other than a manufacturing defect your warranty wouldn't have covered a dime. Warranty only exists to cover defects in materials or workmanship from the factory, and if the previous owner did something to it warranty wouldn't apply. Furthermore the only way you're going to be able to physically damage an aluminum casting like that would be to whack it with something, and if that were the case the damage would be extremely obvious once they got it removed. Warrantied components typically get sent back to Ford, so even if your dealer was trying to help you out they would be billed back for the repair if Ford determined it was caused by abuse.

I have on the other hand heard of bad transmission housings, and in most case the entire transmission is replaced rather than the complete disassembly to replace the housing.

First of all there is absolutely no need to come to a complete stop to engage your four wheel drive. That's like plugging in the block heater when it's 75�° out because you're afraid of damaging your engine. The system is designed to spin up the front driveline and engage the front hubs at speeds up to 55 MPH if I remember right, and so you aren't helping a thing by coming to a complete stop before engaging.

I guess it's theoretically possible for the t-case to have come engaged, but remember that you don't have four wheel drive unless both front hubs are engaged as well. You could drive around with the transfer case engaged for hundreds of thousands of miles on pavement with no damage, because as long as the hubs aren't engaged no power is being transferred. Sure the front driveline would be spinning, but it would be under no tension whatsoever and therefore incur minimal wear if anything.

If there's one thing I can communicate to you in this entire post let it be this: these systems are TOUGH. In nearly ten years here on FTE yours is literally the second or third failure I've seen out of tens of thousands of posts that I've read. I've used four wheel drive on pavement in the past a number of times, and lots of our member subject their stock trucks to far more strenuous things for the four wheel drive system without ever having any negative effects. What happened to you most likely had nothing to do with how your four wheel drive was used by either yourself or the previous owner.

Now that is plain and simple abuse. These trucks have a higher tolerance for that than most, but everything has it's limit.

 

Wow, thanks for the replies!! Very informative!! I guess I was just worried as I really don't want another incident to happen on my dime again. I know enough to be dangerous with vehicles, and I was just really paranoid that it was something I did to cause this kind of damage.

Really the only kind of work I can do on a vehicle is if I have the part that I need to replace in hand and can do an even swap. I was thinking about having it towed back to my house and doing the work myself, but it was going to be $750 for a tow (200 miles away) and they are only charging me $240 for labor. They got a rebuilt t-case from ford for $1600 with no core charge(1 yr warranty /12,000 miles). The rest of the bill was a tow from the interstate, t-oil, labor, and I guess I needed a new carrier bearing and that was $200.

Again thanks for the info!!

 

My understanding it was the housing, it was a crack on the bottom center, could possibly be as mentioned from getting a good whack from somthing. Wouldn't suprise me as it is a Colorado truck and some the forest service roads can get a little harry at times. However this struck me as odd, again as I understood it they took the interal componets of the tranny and put them in a new housing and then back in she went.

I asked the mechanic fixing my truck and he said there is no way to tell as the case was split like a melon.

Good advice, they already checked and said everything else is fine.

 

A rare failure indeed. Sounds like it was dry. At least check that and diff's annually.

there is a service interval too btw. I changed my transfer case oil at 60K.

 

Sounds like you getting it dealt with. I don't quite agree with the mechanic
and not being able to find the cause. But also doing a forensic examination
of the parts can get a bit $$ when you have not done it before. Myself coming
from the aircraft industry have had to do the looking and digging to pinpoint
the fault.

Sean