ok ill make this short and sweet, i few months ago i had the local dsm/evo mechanic change my clutch (had to pull off the trasfercase obviously) ok and about a month after that i get the infamous death whine.. and finnaly my transfer case just goes out....so i finnaly have the cash to buy a new transfer case from TRE...but when i go to pull the old case out i notice theres 2 bolts missing on the top WTF!!!! and my question is.....can 2 bolts missing cause my transfer case to go out? i hardly race my car and it has seen like a whole 5 launches in its life....this is on my 03 btw and not my IX........any input would be great....thanks guy

 

bump....

 

I highly doubt it unless the t-case wasnt aligned properly upon installation....

The thing I hate about shops is when they lose nuts and bolts when they work on your car....its like they are rushing to get the job done fast rather than making sure they put back everything they took off..... that why I prefer working on my own car, so I can keep track of every nut, bolt etc etc that comes off so that I can put it back on later!!

 

ok...well the reason i ask is because when i was breaking the bottom bolts loose it seemed like it had a little bit of play in it.....

 

i would say it is possible. I have done 15 or so clutches and if you tighten up the bottom 3 bolts without tightening up the top, it may not seat properly. With the aluminum flanges able to flex a minute amount, i can see you putting a load on it and it flexing out of alignment even more..... M2c.....Ray

 

well thats good news...kinda......if i can find out that this is the direct cause for it to fail then im going to take this to small claims so if any one else would like to chime in feel free...

 

Your ACD system probally wasnt bleed right and thats probally why it went.

 

he said it was on his 03 so it wouldnt have acd unless he swapped it in which he didnt state!!

 

yeah it doesnt have acd....

 

Amen! I do all my own work, only way you can be *sure* it's done correctly.

 

Oh didnt see that, just saw he had a 9 thought it was that one.

 

Your gonna have the burden of proof to show that he negligently left the bolts off. He's going to argue that they vibrated out while you were driving, and you'll have to find a way to disprove this or you might be paying some fees. Good luck!

 

Bolts dont vibrate out when they are torqued to spec. If the bolts are missing thats the mechanics fault.

 

I agree that when a bolt is torqued to spec, it is LESS likely that the bolt will vibrate out. Over the last 7 yrs. of working on DSMs and Evos I've seen it happen more than a handful of times. 4 cylinder engines with balance shafts are less likely to do this, but it still happens. Low frequencies usually loosen bolts and at high frequencies, a bolt can actually become welded.

 

Missing the top bolts on your transfer case isn't going to cause your case to get the whiring of death. Especially if the bottom bolts were still tight.

Its more likely that the wrong xfer case fluid was used to fill the thing when the clutch was done. It has to be DIAQUEEN LSD OIL. If your mechanic put some other crap in there that is why it failed.