It's an aweful whining noise from the front of the car. Sounds like a supercharger... is it the power steering pump? Or do I just need a new serpentine belt?
Last edited by Soul Crusher; 06-06-2009 at 08:11 PM..
my guess would be one of the tensioner pulleys it has a bearing on it and sometimes the bearing go bad. try replacing the belt, and while your at it spin the bearing and see if its bad, you normally wanna check that anyways anytime you replace the belt (atleast i have been told)
I also noticed that one of the PS pump mout bolts is missing (the left one, the easiest one to get to). I now it's a 15mm but what leingth?
I took the belt off and spun the various accesories and tentioners by hand. The tentioner near the power steering pump made a louder sound than anything... I'll regrease it and try again.
I got a similar noise when I was a noob and put brake fluid in the powersteering reservoir on my mom's tl. It was a bad noise, like that. Did you fuck up like I did?
If not that.. then keep checking pulleys, that is an aweful noise.
Can you give a guess as to what direction the sound is coming from? If you don't have a stethoscope, you could use a screw driver and put your ear next to it while touching various spots to find the loudest point.
It's just a hunch, but check to see if it's loudest at below the throttle body...
I don't think I have a stethosope, but I'll do the screwdriver thing today. If I had to guess I'd say its coming from the power steering pump area. However like I said the steering seems unaffected. Could it just be that there is a bearing in the pump that is going bad?
The car has never gone above standard opperating temperature, even at auto-x events
Yes, absolutely. Although my suspicion was towards another accessory, my opinion for the actual cause of the noise itself is a bad bearing.
You stated that you already turned the pulleys with the belt off and that you heard the most sounds when turning the tensioner pulley by the power steering. This is a good indication it is exactly that tensioner pulley that's emitting the sound. Another supporting factor is that your power steering is not leaking and performing efficiently. With pumps, a worn bearing will only precede a loss of seal between the inside of the pump and the outside, leading to a leak of the fluid that's carried inside. It is not big hassle to remove the tensioner pulley, so you might as well replace that if you have a spare and see how it goes. Alternatively, you could perform a regreasing of the bearings as illustrated in this thread on how to open the seal to refresh the pulley.
Last edited by Crimsonnaire; 04-25-2009 at 02:51 PM..
yea a bad bearing would cause god affowl noise like that, the only other issue the power steering would have to come into play is if the power steering fluid wasn't bled, next time ur under the hood turn the car on and pop off the power steering res. cap, if there is foam in it, try bleeding the system by leaving the cap off and turning the steering wheel all the way 2 both sides slowly. see if that helps at all, but there isn't n e foam in the resivor, then more than likely its a bad pulley bearing. goodluck, and keep us posted
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Tried bleeding the PS resevoir allready, no foam to begin with, no difference afterwards.
I regreased the tentioner by the PS pump and the dynamic (sprung)tentioner on the pasengers side. No difference in the noise.
If it is a bad bearing in the PS pump can I just replace the bearing or do I have to replace the whole thing?
You wouldn't be able to replace just the bearings in the power steering pump. The thing is held with a solid welding, and no way to open it unless you use a torch and saw. In a word, not worth it. If it is the pump, just use it until it starts to leak, or if you really can't stand the sound, go ahead and replace it.
But this is assuming that it is the power steering pump. If you haven't done so already, remove the belt and start the engine. With the belt off, only the drive pulley will be spinning, and that'll be a good start for your investigation. If you don't hear anything, then turn off the engine and hand spin every other pulley by hand, except the ones you greased if it was the case that you actually greased the inside where the bearings rest. If you only greased the outside, it'll take a while to get in or may not reach inside at all. When hand spinning the pulleys, be extra keen on any unusual sound you can hear, even if it's by the slightest whisper of a difference from the other pulleys. As I said before, a pulley with a bad bearing is well capable of emitting a noticeable sound when spun by hand.
Started with no serpentine belt on. Sound went away. Spun everything by hand, there is a slight tick in the power steering pump. After turning it about an inch of rotation there is a slight click, then it's fine until I spin it the other way.
OK, so you've isolated the PS pump. The tick you hear is probably the bad bearing. Imagine a worn pinball rolling on a table. Each time the flat spot makes contact with the surface, you'll hear a tap/tick, and because its movement can shift in a perpendicular direction, the sound is not always consistent. I believe it's the same case here. With high tension and speed applied on that pulley, a single tick will turn to a whine. The decision is up to you to either continue using that pump and take the whine or to get a new one.
You can get a new pump from Autozone for a pretty decent price, plus get a refund discount when you hand them your old one.
If I continue turning it in the same direction there is no tick. It's only the initial turn in either direction. Er... does that make sence? I think you're right though. It is the PS pump.
I tried to contact Turn One last week about getting one of theirs but they havn't bothered to respond.
I understand what you mean. In this case, there are 3 possible scenarios: First is that a bearing is worn to the point where it has lost some surface area, and because the bearings rest in grease, a temporary suction is created when the grease is pushed to a current from the rest of the bearings spinning, thus lifting (or dropping depending on position) the bearing vertical to center of pulley and causing to hit against either of the barrier rings, with the initial impact being most discernible because of the suction. Once the pulley is spinning fast, friction and grease current are at their highest level as the bad bearing is bouncing off all surrounding surfaces due to the high tolerance of its size displacement from the other bearings, emitting the whine. The second possibility is that a standard component of the impeller shaft has loosened enough (though not broken) to be able to have a slight play as the pulley is turned, and you only hear it once every first turn in either direction because once you have turned it, the tolerance between the component and the adjacent surface of the shaft is closed, with the next tick only occuring at the opposite end, i.e. turning pulley opposite direction. The third possibility is a combination of these two possibilities up to some random moderation between the two.
In any case, your logical choice of focus is to be on the PS pump because it is the only pulley that emitted an unusual sound when hand spun.
In my opinion, you might as well use the pump to the end and get the maximum mileage out of it. If it's loud enough to be embarrasing in front of an opposite sex, you have the option claiming it's the supercharger and that it's normal...
Whining noise *Video* SOLVED 
