Has anyone had this happen on their H3? at about 60mph, the rear end develops a whine/hum sound only while accelerating. Take your foot off the gas, whine goes away immediately. Talked to several people, I guess the gears are worn. Improper service history?...I bought it used and its just out of its 50k warrenty. Called the dealor, said a 2006 only comes with a 50k powetrain while 2007-present have 100k. Sounds unfair to me...same parts, different year. Said would be around $1100 to fix. I'm wondering how long i can drive like this?... it's a daily driver. Some say they will whine forever, some say only a few months until it gives and becomes more expensive to fix. Thanks!

 

Some of the earlier 06 H3's had an issue with the gears cracking in the rear differential due to the way they were manufactured. I had the same whine problem with mine in 2006 about a year after I purchased it (purchased in Sept 05). The entire rear differential was replaced under warranty. There is no service bulletin that I'm aware. This may or may not be your problem, a good mechanic would need to look at the gears to tell you.

You may want to change the differential fluid and drive it just to see if that makes a difference. If you do the fluid change yourself, it should cost <$40 (fluid and pump).

I also had the gears in my rear differential of my Jeep (what I had before the H3) go out and I took it to the dealer for a price and then a 4x4 specialty shop. I drove my Jeep with the gear problem for about 8 months. The 4x4 shop did the repair (replaced all gears) for about 1/4 the price of the dealer. The rear differential on the H3 isn't unique and just about any 4x4 mechanic can pull the gears and replace them.

If you don't have a rear locker, this may be a good time to have one put in.

 

Thanks for the reply. I had everything serviced at 4wheelparts when I bought it (diffs, transfer case, tranny, oil). They put in royal purple in both diffs. It had a faint hum after purchase, nothing major. Seems to have become a bit more noticeable, but nothing extremely loud. I plan to add a eaton elocker since this model doesn't have one, so at that point I'll have them go through the gears. Until then, hopefully everything holds up. We will see after I head camping and 4wheeling this weekend.