dubl07

Hi all,

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

I have an '04 GX470 with 100,000 miles. I had an extended warranty with Carmax up to 100,000 miles, and so I recently took the vehicle into the Lexus dealership to do a full checkup before my warranty ran out. They told me I had a leak in the transfer case, and quoted me $1300 to fix it.

I took the repair order to CarMax, and they covered it under the warranty. My concern is after I received the vehicle back, the transmission seems to shift harshly--something it never did before. I am not very knowledgeable about mechanics of cars, but do the transfer case and transmission correlate in any way? The warranty ran out within a few days of me getting the car back from CarMax, but I can definately take it back if it is related to the job they did with the transfer case.

Thanks so much in advance for your help.

jditom

What did they do during the repair?
Remove t-case?
Change tranny fluid?

Lexmex

Welcome to the Club.

Yes, the transfer case and the transmission do correlate. Transfer case is almost immediately underneath your feet when you are driving and a bit to the right near the middle of the vehicle and helps to drive the rear wheels (hence AWD) in combination with the rear differential. Both have gear oil (75W90 or so) in both of them, roughly a quart each. The transfer case has an axle going through it and this axle will also go through the transmission itself.

When either the transmission fluid and/or gear oil is old/bad, this can have an unintended effect in terms of shifting in certain middle gears like the 2nd or 3rd gear changeover.

I guess the best way is to ask, what do you feel when you got from a stop light and floor it, how do the shifts feel, are they long and drawn out or short and jerky?

JimsGX

I wouldn't hesitate in bringing it back to them. If for no other reason as to get it documented via a service order that the shifting has been harsh since they made the repair. If it happened right from the time you picked the vehicle up after the repair, its not a coincidence, have them fix the vehicle properly at no charge to you.

Lexus 4 ME

I was going to say this too, as long as you talk to service department and they documented everything you should be fine. They will do the repair untill the problem is gone.