Lost RWD

While driving my manual VR4 I have been hearing a low whine over the last 3 months......but sometimes it would sound like a supercharger......very loud......at first I thought it was the rear turbo.....but now I think its something else.

Well as I was driving on the motorway last-night the whine became great and then I had a shudder and a bang......so I pulled over. The car never stalled and once I was stopped its seamed normal.

All I could smell was clutch but no oil on the ground and the prop was not dragging the ground.

So I managed to drive the 10 miles back home but the car did not feel right.......it was as I only had FWD only.

Today I jacked the car up on one side to see if both diffs turned the wheels and the front would turn but the rear did not......so I jacked up only the rear and with the help of my Brother we turned the rear wheels.......the car was still in gear and it turned freely.......no resistance at all even with the car in gear.

So its my guess its the transfer box is no longer sending drive to the rear wheels.

My first guess was the clutch but it made it the 10 miles without slipping......and placing the car in gear and with the handbrake on the car span the front wheels and made two nice holes in my gravel drive......so I am ruling out the clutch. My other thought was has the end of the prop-shaft lost its splines.

Luckily I have a spare transfer box I was just wandering what part has failed in the one on the car........the box would have done over 160000 miles.

I'd drain the oil in the transfer box. That will show up anything horrible. Your description makes me suspect the transfer box too although they rarely fail. The only 2 dead ones I have seen were caused by mismatched tyres on one and an oil leak on the other.

I was talking to my mate from work that rallies a Evo 5 and he lost rwd and then fwd while on a stage.....(but has no warning like I did).......but he said as mine went with a bang it is the transfer box.

I was just lucky to still have drive.

So I have bought a seal kit for my other box and will fit them before changing it over.

Lesson here is if you hear a noise don't pretend its not a noise and try and sort it out.