It has been found that the factory in Japan has overfilled some X transfer cases, both 2008 and 2010. It is important to check and drain the excess, if any. This is not a problem that does damage right away, but can at a later date. I know of three cars that have spewed fluid out of the top case breather tube, two of which around 15k miles and the third around 20k miles. One able to be saved by just cleaning, inspecting, and filling with a proper level of fluid, but two were trashed and needed replacement.

To check if your car is affected is very simple, just remove the fill plug and if any fluid starts coming out let it drain until it stops. It wouldn't be a bad idea to document how much was removed and contact your dealer for them to input that information into their system.

 

Good info.

Honestly it's wise for us all to always check fluids on brand new cars. You can't trust what someone else did. For something that can take a half an hour, it can save you boatloads.

 

This screw up just cost Mitsu corp ~$4k on my car, luckily my local dealership is amazing and got me taken care of rather quickly!

 

is this a problem on any 2011 X's that I should be concerned with?

 

when checking, I'm assuming it would be wise to replace the fill plug gasket?

 

I haven't heard of any overfilled 2011's yet, but they're still new enough that even if they are you wouldn't know it yet. I say pull the fill plug just to verify it isn't (or ask your dealer to do it, they might be nice enough to check for you).
No need, it's a steel washer which can be reused at least a few times.

 

check on LEVEL GROUND with car LEVEL, otherwise you maybe removing liquid

 

That could explain why there was excess fluid coming out of the breather when running the Kids with Cancer car at the Spring Mountain track. A few days later they said the rear end was making noises and the entire rear diff was trashed from pieces bouncing around inside.

 

Just checked. Mine looked fine!

 

How does over filling cause a failure? I understand it spitting fluid out of the breather and that's annoying (and if it did spit some out, you'd suspect that it spit out as much as it needed to be at the right level), but how does having too much fluid cause a mechanical failure?

 

My guess is the increased pressure inside the case causes damage to the bearings. Or maybe the fluid gets so churned up it can no longer protect the gears. Either way, it got really loud right before blowing out the fluid then after the fluid level was properly set it quieted down some but then slowly started getting louder until it was actually a grinding noise with a lot of drivetrain slop present.

 

That's just crazy, wish Mitsu didn't screw things up like that. I would imagine that overfilling would froth the oil and while daily driving might not be too hard on it, aggressive track driving would most certainly push the limits of lubrication even without the fluid being overfilled.

 

hey guys, is this the breather hole you are talking about? this picture is right below the air box

 

That depends, is that the transfer case?







Answer: no, that is the transmission The one we're talking about is a good 12" straight back and 12" to the passenger side from that one. On the transfer case!

 

thanks, i knew the trans and transfer case were around the same area...

does anyone have a picture of the actual breather hole?