That "hollow, whirring" noise is not indicative of a failure (mine does that too)...a screeching noise IS!

And the air pump has nothing to do with the upshift delay...as I stated earlier, it does its job pretty early upon startup, then ceases.

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car