High pittched whining noise?

Has anyone on this board experienced a high pitch whining noise when they start their car? Mine now makes a whining noise when I start the car and let it idle. It seems to go away (or at least get a LOT quieter) after I drive around and the the car warms up.

I'm not sure if this is related at all, but I just installed a stepped alternator pulley for 9psi.

Thanks.

Souns like it could be an upgraded fuel pump. Mine makes a similar noise sometimes.

Possibly a bad bearing in the new pulley?

The stepper pulley has NO bearings, so this cannot be the problem. However, you may want to check your belt tension on both the alternator and the blower. Being too loose or too tight may make some strange noises.

It's not the fuel pump because it's coming from the front of the car.

I'll try playing with the belt tensions.

Anybody know how much play my power steering and air conditioning belts are supposed to have?

Thanks.

Take the Alternator to SC belt off and see if the idler pulley wobbles; if it does, it's bad and needs to be replaced... this has been the strange whining noise solution for at least 5 of us here. [img]smile.gif[/img] I thought it was my blower rubbing something inside at first but somebody turned me on to the bad idler idea... sounds like a high pich wining... gets better when car is warm.

Chuck

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 09, 2002 04:10 PM: Message edited by: 96IntegraRS ]</font>

Also... it's actually more of a whirring than a whining. That ring any bells with anyone? Would the belt stop making noise at different rpms and when they warmed up? Could it be the funny looking "gatorback" belt I got to replace my AC belt?

Somebody on honda-tech.com mentioned something about a PCV valve.

Thanks for the suggestion Chuck. I'll check that out... but I just replaced that pulley on Monday! =)

I'll check that and my belt tensions out though. Thanks.

Belt tensions can be adjusted either by feel or with a tension gauge.

I go by feel. I look at the length of belt between two points and go from there. The longer the free belt length is, the more flex there should be.

So... for the PS belt, which has a 8-12" free span, I go for about an inch of flex at the midpoint. For smaller spans like the alternator belt, I go for a smaller flex, like 1/2".

Basically, the loosest it can be without slipping is the best setting. This puts the least load on the bearings.

I have a similar whining that I thought was maybe electrical interference. It starts to fluctuate when I hit my blinkers...from a steady "whiirrrrrr" to "whirrr.err.whirr.err.whirr.err" with every blink.

Gotta love the onomatopeia [img]wink.gif[/img]

Just FYI, I recently swapped idler pulleys, and the noise still persists.