SyncdLancer

Hey everyone so for the past year or so I have been driving on a whiney transfer case. The car is an 06 IX SE with 127k. I bought it with 96k and I have had it for almost 2 and a half years now. When I bought it I never changed the fluids so I began to develop the infamous TC whine. I never had leaking fluid but one time the fluid was low so the car was doing a lot of buckling and chattering especially during tight turns. I figured that was the diff inside the TC not getting any fluid. It sounded like it was jumping teeth somewhere making a very loud banging sound. It was consistent with wheel speed. After filling up the TC and tranny the noise never came back. I never got around to changing the TC. I've been driving it gently for some time now and I never had issues with the car after that. A few months ago I noticed that my clutch noise was beginning to grow slowly. The car ran fine and I never abused it so I assumed it was the throw out bearing because the clutch was grabbing and seemed to be behaving fine. I could select all my gears without any extra effort.


Last night I was driving home and I heard what sounds like a plastic bag sticking to my front bumper. I looked underneath the car and didn't see any plastic bag. Today I drove to work and I kept hearing the same noise. It sounded very similar to wind blowing on a plastic bag. I came to a stop light and when the light turned green I very carefully pushed in the clutch pedal. It felt fine. Plenty of pressure. I went into 1st and eased out the pedal. When I began to pick up speed the sound reappeared. I took it out of gear and the noise went away pretty much as soon as I pushed in the clutch. Suddenly the noise came back again but this time much more faintly. I assumed it was quieter because I was coasting in neutral. As soon as I put it in 2nd or 3rd it would come back. The weird thing is, its not consistent with the pitch of the sound. That's why i am describing it as a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Kinda makes me think its a bearing in the TC that's going out. Can the sound of a plastic bag blowing in the wind mimic the sound of a bearing coming apart and failing causing a similar sound?


I came to the next light and did the same thing. Easy in easy out. Gentle gas and no sudden movements or turns. Suddenly the car felt like it was locking up. It felt like nothing I have ever felt before. I heard what sounded to be like metal pieces falling inside the transmission or something. I started to come from another light and as I let the clutch pedal out the car felt like it didn't want to move. I pulled over and as I was trying to parallel park, the clutch was behaving normally. I removed the TC inspection plate and all of my silvery fluid came out with no pieces of metal which was what I was hoping to discover. I touched the ring gear and the teeth of the gear felt normal only where I was able to place my finger. It wasn't smoothed out like so many pictures and videos I have seen of other failed T-cases. I even tried to look inside the bell housing where the flywheel is for any metal pieces but the view was very poor and I couldn't observe anything.I left the car.


So what the hell is going on? How could that ring gear appear to feel normal despite all the wear ive placed on it and the death whine ive had for so long that has slowly progressed. It hasn't gotten to the point where the whine turns into a howl but... it is getting closer. And as far as my clutch goes, all seems fine apart from the rattling noise that I believed to be a throw out bearing going bad. ANY advice would be really appreciated.

Pal215

iTrader: (12)

My advice to you is to buy a new clutch kit and send the transfer case out for a rebuild as there can be damage within it that not everyone is able to see. The viscus unit inside the transfer case might be destroyed. What you're describing is very bizarre and I would have expected to see pieces of metal in the TC fluid.

-pal215