Front prop shaft failure - extent of damage

[mandosaurus]

So I am dealing with a huge dealership headache at the moment, and I wanted to see if the community can help me determine to what extent my 4runner is damaged. They have the vehicle and are inspecting it, but I want to be prepared with any feedback the community might have about unseen damage.

I have a 5th gen TRD OR that was brought in for an unrelated warranty job, and after the dealership completed the warranty repair, the front prop shaft was not torqued. Per the FS manual, the front prop shaft must be removed to complete the repair. I believe all 4 of the bolts on the front diff side were left finger tight, and were not torqued upon re-installation. I was able to confirm this by finding one of the bolts, undamaged, on the ground, and also able to thread/unthread the bolt still attached to the flange by hand. Due to the condition of the bolts, they did not spontaneously shear apart.

After driving in 2WD for a few hundred miles, I put it into 4wd and BOOM, the shaft came loose, spun around and took out a whole lot of stuff with it.

Known damage:
transmission case is cracked, torque converter visible.
Prop shaft damage
vehicle stuck in 4WD, was not able to get it into 2WD.
Vehicle will not shift into gear
Frame gouging / scratches

I am wondering if there is a chance that the front diff or transfer case are damaged internally and would also need replacement. I am not sure what would fail first internally, but given the nature that the vehicle is stuck in 4wd and not mobile, I think at a minimum the transfer case would need to be replaced in addition to the transmission and front prop shaft.

Again, I am waiting to hear back on the dealerships assessment, but given that there was such an egregious oversight on the first warranty job, I am trying to be as informed as possible.

Thanks everyone!

 

[rdruss]

Whooooooooooa!! That's a good (bad) one!

 

[AuSeeker]

If the transmission housing is crack/busted and you can see the torque converter, I would be concerned that there could also be damage to the engine block, the torque converter is bolted to the flywheel with is bolted to the crankshaft, what I'm saying is the back of the engine block is very very close to the damage to the transmission so there the possibility of damage there as well especially since it an aluminum block and not cast iron.

Also could be damage to the front differential being that the failed driveshaft was connected to it.

In fact anything within reach of the drive shaft as it exited it's normal position at the speed and flailed about could be affected!!

 

[rwh963]

wow, horrible. i feel for you. please keep us informed. as an aside, several years ago i had a 2006 Jeep Wrangler LJ. i brought it in to my local toyota dealer for something like tire install. there came back telling me that the front drive shaft was in risky shape and dangerous to drive. they gave me a quote to do a replacement. they didn't recommend driving it. i took a chance since i only lived several miles away. i crept home. the next day, i crawled underneath to take a look. all four bolts were loose! i torqued them down, and that was that. i think the u-joints were i need of replacing, but why didn't the dealer just torque down the bolts?!