Transfer case: The rear seal went out when we were driving it to Indiana about midway through Ohio. Didn't know anything was wrong until I went to fill up the car and noticed oil all over the rear. It was around midnight and I figured we did the damage already so I continued on to Indiana.
Had a new seal put in while out there. TC had a slight whine but nothing too bad. Drove it like that while topping it off for another 50k miles (it was a spare vehicle at this point so I wasn't throwing money into it).
At around 180k miles we were driving it to Lowes in town to get some yard stuff for springtime. My wife was 7 months pregnant. There's a highway that cuts through town so we were on that when I heard a loud bang. Looked in the rearview and saw a 3" chunk of metal fly out from under the truck. She still drove and we were getting off the next exit anyway so I went with it. Got out at Lowes and looked underneith it. Saw where that missing hunk of metal fell out: a nice 3" hole in the transfer case.
...yet she still drove. So we decided to risk it through town on 30mph roads. Made it halfway and there was a stoplight. as we were slowing down another loud BANG and this time the back of the truck jumped up in the air a good foot.
...yet she still drove.
I figured I'd already done the damage so we kept going. Got about another 1,000 feet when there was yet another BANG and this time i could hear something dragging. Hit the gas and...
...she didn't go.
So we coasted into a Costco parking lot, called a friend, towed it home and put it in the garage.
The next week I found a 249 TC, bought a new front drive shaft and slapped it in. All in I was out $500.
Greatest damn vehicle I've ever owned.
