So, the subject says it all. Anyone think this is possible?
Our 95 4Runner seems to be using or losing oil from the engine. My son is driving it and has to keep adding oil every couple of weeks.
Today, there was a bit of a puddle under it so he was trying to determine where it was leaking. Appears to be around the tranny shifter boot.

He pulled the tranny plug to see if it was low and it seems to be over full and quite black. We are now wondering if it is possible that engine oil is migrating to the manual transmission in some manner.

I really cannot see how that would be likely without contaminating the clutch in some manner which does not appear to be happening.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

Randy

That is not possible. Your manual trans is overfull b/c the seal between the trans and transfer case is bad. This is also brought on by one or both of the breathers being clogged.

As for the oil consumption, if it isnt leaking around the front pulleys then check the PCV valve.

I cannot see how it could be possible either.

I also do not think it is coming from the transfer case. The transfer case appears to be about the right oil level and the oil in the transfer case is clean.

Just the tranny seems to have too much oil and the oil is black. Maybe the only other possibility is that the transmission has been overfull for a long time and has been running warm which has blackened the oil.

I guess we will drain and refill both the transmission and the transfer case and keep an eye on it for a bit.

I cannot see how it could have been overfilled to the extent it seems to have been. My son pulled the fill plug and let it drain until it stopped - at least a couple of quarts came out.

I don't think anyone has changed the oil in that transmission since I did it myself. I used a 5 gallon pail of oil with a pump and hose. I don't think the truck was on jackstands out of level and cannot believe I would have got that much additional oil in it. I would have pumped the oil in and checked to see when it started to run out of the hole. It could have been slightly high if I did not let it run until it stopped - which is likely - I would have put the plug back in. But, I cannot see it getting 2 or 3 quarts too much. That was also years as opposed to months ago and both of my sons have driven it quite a bit since.

The whole thing is wierd.

We shall change and watch and see what happens.

As to engine oil - we cannot see any leaks. The pcv valve was changed out last summer when we did new valve gaskets because they were leaking somewhat at the back.

We will check it further once the weather warms up some. In the interim, I guess we will just keep an eye on the oil level. Maybe it is burning oil now. Not a whole lot of miles on it for a 95 - about 130K miles.

Will pull some sparkplugs in the spring and see what they look like. Also clean the motor some and watch for leaks.

Randy

Check the spec in the manual and then measure how much oil comes out of the tranny. Like you said, it's hard to overfill it by much.

Good suggestion. Only other thing I can think of is the output shaft seal has a leak, but only way to find that out is by pulling the darn thing.

Does it smell like gear oil or engine oil?

Either way, keep an eye on both.

I have no idea how it would get in there, there is no direct link, but if that is what you think it is, I would drain it as fast as you can. You are talking twenty dollars in gear oil, verses the cost of rebuilding the transmission. In this case black is not beautiful!!!!!

The oil in the transmission and the transfer case have been drained and replaced as of Tuesday this week. My younger son, who drives the truck, is an apprentice auto mechanic. He got it into the shop where he works on Tuesday after work and drained and refilled so it should be safe for now. He will run it for a bit and then check it to see if it stays clean etc.
An odd situation so we will watch it.

Randy