Anyone had their AWD Transfer Cases Fail

[I CORNER]

Two weeks ago, while I was driving from South Florida (Palm Beach Area) to Pennsylvania to tow a trailer back to move my daughter back from graduate studies at Penn State, the Transfer Case in my 2004 SSS failed. I just cleared 150,000 miles on the trip up. While I rarely tow anything, I drive in the city mostly, and I do tend to stomp on it more than my 2008 Corvette Z06. The SSS is completely stock with the exception of a PCMforLess tune and a Volant Air Filter. I have changed the fluid in the Transfer case twice over the years.

 

I started hearing a growling noise in North Carolina at 70mph, which got progressively louder, which did not consistently occur or go away under different driving conditions (load, coasting, uphil, downhill, different gears, braking, etc), other than slowing down. Eventially we had to slow to below 47 mph in upper Maryland to alleviate the sound. I considered that noise = heat, so I preferred to arrive late than weld metal to metal at some point and be stranded.

 

I took it to Klick Lewis Chevy dealer the next day (Palmyra PA) after I got to my daughter's place. Note 5 other Chevy dealers in Harrisburg and closer blew us off on the phone. I had assumed that it was a U-Joint, due to a whump/whump sound I heard at a lower speed after a gas stop. Even riding with the mechanic we could not hear anything with everything being now cold until he went over 60 (in a 40mph zone of their small town). On the lift, we discovered that the rear driveshaft Yoke was so loose in the Transfer case, that the Yoke could be pushed up and down at nearly 30 degrees from the horizontal axis of the Transfer case driveline. Therefore, there was no way that the splines were meshing with the rear driveshaft at all, and we must have made 1/2 of the trip on the Front drive alone of the AWD. The fluid was draining down the rear driveshaft. He said the thrust bushing must have gone.

 

Klick Lewis was able to get a remanufactured unit in between Monday 2PM and Tuesday 10Am and I had the truck back by 1:30PM on Tuesday so they did jump thru hoops.

 

So my 2 questions are;

 

- what kind of reliablity have others on the board had with their SSS AWD Transfer Cases. I always expected that AWD would reduce the reliability of the truck some, so 150,000 miles is not really objectionable.

 

- Second, I ended up paying $2450 for a reman AWD Transfer Case ($1499), a rear driveshaft new Yoke/U-Joint ($295), a second U-Joint, labor, fluid, $125 worth of Fed-Ex overnight costs and tax, with 10% discount coming to the $2450. I really had no choice, but do you all think that this was a fair price?

 

Otherwise, the SSS has been a good truck for me.

 

Any comments would be appreciated,

Rick

[Downeast Johnny]

That must have been an eye opening charge for the O.N. delivery.

 

Overall I don't think that the cost was out of line. (Although it had to hurt some).

 

The wallered out tale shaft housing is a fairly common problem.

 

Not to be a wise guy, but constant vigilance as far as front diff and T-case fluid is a good idea.

[kcsilveradoss]

Don't see too many of these with catastrophic failure, and LOTS of guys push these beyond the limits.

[zachm89]

I toasted the carrier bearing assembly in mine but thats the only trouble Ive had from the trasfer case after 5 years of abuse with 2+ years being supercharged. The price seems a bit high for a reman unit but then again it was through a dealer and one such short notice it was probably worth the extra coin. Just glad you were able to make it there and get it fixed before it did damage to anything else!

[Fireman31]

That price is average I believe. Although it was 4wd not AWD, my old '03 Tahoe's transfer case threw a pump bearing last year and toasted the case. It cost me close to $1900 with labor for a reman transfer case....

[RtStuf]

Think you got a reasonable deal & were taken care of efficiently by the dealer. Remanufactured beats rebuilt in my opinion, Jasper is probably most well known & has warranty. Not aware of tail shaft housing being common problem, but do believe fluids are the key to longevity. Might consider fluid change after 5k mi. of break in. Lucky didn't get stranded & have additional towing bill. Good luck, hope truck is good for another 150k mi.

[JC03SS]

It's not a real common prob that I've seen on here. Sorry to hear about that hopefully this one will hold up awhile. I'm fixing to turn 100kin the next month or 2. I change my front dif fluid every year to year and a half. I know you don't have to but I do. It's like 20$ so no biggie.

[I CORNER]

Thank you much gents. It is always helpful to get a baseline!