Hey Guys... Many thanks to 2003HummerH2 and bronxteck for their help with the Blower Motor delay issue on my 03 H2 Wagon. I bought the H2 a few weeks ago and have started taking care of a few "night picky" things. Now I have an interesting issue that I think I know the issue.... but need your insight. I'm putting 2 separate things I have observed together and making a conclusion. Am I on the right path here guys? The forums don't address this issue directly... but I have been able to learn a few separate pieces from doing tons of searches.

When starting after the H2 (2003 with 77,000 miles) has been sitting long enough to cool down.... it cranks right up and idles well. After about 20 seconds I get a dull whine out of the transfer case (no grinding or clanking). When I slide under her it seems the whine is coming from the Transmission to transfer case connection. After about 2 minutes of warming up the whine disappears and will not come back until the next time it sits and cools off and is recranked. There is no observed seal leakage from the front or rear output seals and the transfer case and trans operates as normal. No vibration at idle or driving. HOWEVER, then I changed transfer case fluid last week I had about 1 QT pour out of the upper (fill) plug of the case. I refilled TCase with the normal 2 qts. I also had to add 1 QT to the trans afterwards to make up for the extra quart that poured out of the TCase. So I have a few observations.

1) Front input Shaft Seal of the TCase is leaking from the Trans to the TCase (causing the extra quart of oil in the TCase).
2) The 90 second whine at cold crank is coming from the Transmission to TCase area.

My Conclusion..... Maybe these 2 are related. Possible worn TCase input shaft bearing that whines at cold start until it warms up.... and possible this has caused the seal to start leaking.

What ya think? Is my conclusion heading down the right path? Or am I way off base here? Am I looking at a bearing starting to go bad? I don't mind replacing the input seal but I'm not going to split the cases myself to replace a bearing.

How about it experts.... thoughts?

CM

 

I wanted to add a few more details. Putting it in Drive with foot on the brake does not stop the whining. Neither does shifting into Neutral. As long as she I stationary the whine will last 90 seconds then go away. If you put it in gear and pull away the whine stops. After more thinking I realized the input shaft to the transfer case isn't rotating when she isn't moving (Park, Neutral, or drive with foot on brake). So my theory of a input shaft bearing in the TCase is starting to seem less likely. However, perhaps a bearing in the back of the transmission is a possibility? I'm not familiar with whats inside an Automatic transmission. Could this be a bearing issue in the Trans?

Is this something that is going to get worse?

 

have you checked the power steering pump sometimes they have a similar whine. and the pump is not too far from the bottom of the engine.
the transfer case and transmission are 2 separate things and do not share their fluids other then they both use ATF. it might have been a coincidence that you where shy a quart in the transmission but that's not really normal either. oil does not evaporate, look for leaks.
you would have to have a really massive leak in both the transmission output and transfer case input seal's from what you wrote above but I am pretty sure you would have a very Hugh puddle of oil on your driveway before that happened.