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When I start the car, I hear a whine and it varies with engine speed – and had no change with transmission engagement/disengagement.
It does seem to be worse with colder temps – as the car warms up – it’s not as bad.I’m not seeing any difficulties when moving the steering wheel, and no lights are coming on the dash.
Is there an easy way to test between an idler pulley / power steering?
I know I need to replace the cam synchronizer (birds are chirping away) – could the whine be associated with the synchonizer as well?
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You can use an engine stethoscope or a long screw driver to listen to each pulley. The offending pulley will be much louder than the others. As for the cam synch its always possible it could be that just check it too. Is the power steering system full? The power steering will be a different noise if it is low than a bad bearing.
Here’s a good video on finding noises.
You may find this information helpful as well.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
Good luck and keep us posted on what you find.
Thanks. I watched that video earlier today.
How do you listen to a moving pulley? without getting background scraping noise from the tip grinding against the pulley as it moves?
The last time I checked the pump was full – that would be my first check – have my baster ready.
I’ll only be changing the fluid though in the reservoir at this time instead of the full flush – even if the level is good.My plan for this weekend is the cam synchronizer – since the temps are going to be in the 50’s vs the 20’s this week!
If it turns out to be the idler pulley – I may swap that one out – that’s not too expensive for the inter paycheck week.I’ll see if I can record the whine on my phone and post that as a sample whine!
Thanks
Replaced the idler and tensioner pulleys – whine still exists – but the idler pulley looked like it had a little wobble
so these were an easy enough fix. – cam synchronizer will be another weekend.Using the stethoscope – It is fairly loud on the alternator, but I can also hear it on the water pump and power steering pump
– not ready to swap out the alternator just yet.This is one of the times that knowing what normal noise sounds like using the stethoscope is important to know when
the noise your hearing is abnormal – and this I may have to take to my mechanic to let me know what is normal and what is not.One very strange thing – you can barely hear the whine under the hood, but when your inside the car the whine is very noticable.
Is that basically the chassis acting as a conduit for the vibrations and I’m inside this chamber making it louder??
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