I'm a hoser gents, I use hose.

The vaccum pump. That insidious bastid. I spend near $1000 redoing a cylinder head on the old 95, only to have the pump fail a few months later. ( I heard the bearings in their races with my HOSE, but it was subtle). That's near $1000 in parts and the machine shop bill. The labor was all mine. Damn things. I was greeted with a tablespoon of metal filings on top of the oil filter.

Tranny front pump huh? It would be my very uneducated guess as its not from the front of the motor, but you can hear it more alongside the motor near the IP ( its not the IP). And it's much more audible in the cabin at 1000 rpm than in the engine bay.

I'll stick the HOSE back there and check it out. Is this a part prone to failure?