I was driving my 2014 Z51 3LT (63,000 Miles) on the highway at about 80 Mph after about an hour of driving my car started making a high pitch whine/grind that would get louder with rpm increase from the passenger/middle dash/back engine bay. The driving itself was relatively normal I’d say, car shifted fine, had no dash lights really just the noise. I was about where I needed to be so I drove it to the destination and turned it off as normal. The car practically cooled off completely as it was a relatively cool night 50°F.and I spent an hour or two where I was. I drive the car back home on the highway it making that noise but once in low rpm and warm it was once again pretty quiet almost non existent. Next day I started it, it sounded loud and from around the torque converter/Tube area. I killed it and haven’t ran it since, I’m relatively mechanically inclined but don’t own a lift, or id give it a go. Does that sound like the converter? Possibly just the tube?

Now to paint you a picture, this is a daily driver in the middle of West Texas so this car lives in rough conditions 😂 summers here are 110°F, sometimes 100+ days a year. The only storms we have are monsoons and dirt at 60mph. The car is also driven relatively aggressively cause I just turned 25 for one, the speed limits are 80-85, and there is literally nothing around.


I’ve already suspected the torque tube to have been having issues due to it having the shuddEr in low rpms. Work done to the car since I’ve owned it (Feb 2024) includes triple flush in the transmission, replaced the water pump once, the idler pulley, Installed a Mishimoto radiator, and a aFe intake. I intend to eventually build it to around 700 HP, so I intend to replace the tube with a solid driveline, is there things I might not know I need to take into consideration while doing so? Any parts recommended to check with the car taken that far apart? Other parts I might want to go ahead and replace while doing the tube/converter considering my HP intentions? I don’t plan on doing any HP increase work for another 12-18 months, so i don’t want to do anything that might damage other parts of the vehicle, or make the driving rougher.

 

Sounds like the belt tensioner to me.

Looks Good!

 

Ive removed the belt and ran for a few seconds and the sound was still present.