Whine?? Hunt continues to locate where it’s coming from

[Maximus Gladius]

(UPDATED Short story: Idler Pully Wheel was defective and bearing seal was eliminating grease. Was replaced but whine continues as before)

21 Glad Rubi, 31k kms, I started hearing a slight transfer case whine that stayed in pitch with the rpm’s at around 20k kms. Was taking a road trip from Calgary to Vancouver (when there was still roads to drive on) early October. I didn’t baby the drive, it was its first long road trip and I got to open it up real good. Coming back to Alberta is when I started hearing it.

Now at 31k it’s louder. It’s not the transmission gears as the whine is still there when I put it in N and rev the rpm’s while moving or in park. I put on a stethoscope and touched both shifters. The transmission is quiet. The transfer case shifter is where I hear the whine. I’ve changed the oil in the trans case on Friday and took an oil sample to the lab, (will have results today). The whine is louder when cold and lessens as it warms up but the noise does not go away.

I’ve got an appointment with the Drive Line Specialist at my dealership this morning to go for a boot to hear it.

Any thoughts as to the severity of this?

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[Maximus Gladius]

Tech confirmed whine noise in 2H and checked it in 4H and Lo. Put it up on hoist and applied the stethoscope to transmission and both diffs to determine those were quiet. Transfer case is displaying the whine but is not a concern as a problem. Recommend to keep monitoring and documented my concern.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

The whine is the Idler Pulley wheel! Saw the bearing had blown its seal.
Put the stethoscope on it and it was just screaming with the rpm’s.
Sent pics in to the dealership and they are ordering the part!

 

[CMac]

Nice work!

 

[NoDoorsNoProblem]

The unsung heroes of the internet are ones that post on forums or message boards with a problem, solve the problem, then post back to update with the fix for future users.

 

[redfish]

Very nice , had the same thing happen on our Ram couple years ago

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Pulley arrived and install on Monday morning!

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Sitting here at the dealership waiting for the idler pulley wheel to be replaced. Now that we know the whine isn’t the transfer case, here is food for thought to think about. ….
I changed the oil in the transfer case at 30k KMS, just a couple days before coming in last week to have the tech try and find the whine. The service advisor commented that the transfer case oil was good so it didn’t need changing and asked if I wanted to be notified at 47k kms for that service. I said I had already changed the oil and do all my own oil services on everything, including the transmission. I told her a sample of the oils are always sent to the lab for analysis. She asked why would I change the oil before the 47k service?? She was very curious what the lab would find with the transfer case. My concern with the whine was that it was the T case and the lab results would bring clarity to the health of the unit.

So now we know it’s the idler pulley wheel.

Coming in this morning, I showed her the lab result on the T case, engine and transmission. She was blown away with the data it shows. She was a bit speechless as people don’t take this step.

Lab results indicate highlights to “abnormal concentrations”.
T case:

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Engine:

 

[Maximus Gladius]

8Speed Auto Transmission:

 

[Maximus Gladius]

UPDATE:
Arrrrggggg! Whine is still there. The pulley wheel was defective and replaced but made no difference in the whine.

Back to the drawing board.

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