This is my moms car. It has about 150K miles on it. Last night while driving home on the highway she heard a loud noise that she thought was coming from the area of the front passenger side wheel. She had it towed and dropped in my driveway... Yay for me.

Checked everything in the front right wheel that I expected to be wrong. The only problem I can find is that there appears to be a small fluid leak from the front differential on that side. Looks like it’s been there for a while. I plan to change all the fluids while I have it.

After power washing and putting together the front end, I started it up and put it in gear to hear this noise for myself. Woah... From what I can tell, the noise appears to be coming from the transfer case, which is very likely outside of my abilities for repair (unless the cheapest option is a complete replacement?)

I’m wondering if you guys have seen or heard this before? Any advice would also be appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry about the video. I was trying to take this from the drivers seat so I could keep a foot on the brake.

 

Well. This is about what I expected to find.

Drain plug magnet is full of metal flakes... about 4 drops of oil came out. Looks like the TC is getting replaced.