Engine Whines with Acceleration.

[Xylene]

What would cause a loud whining noise in a 1998 ford explorer AWD. When you accelerate it gets louder then softer when you take your foot off the gas? I thought it might be the power steering pump, but it doesn't change when turning, only when accelerating or decelerating. Even when idling it will still whine, just gets louder when you push on the gas (Even when in park).

 

[Fraier]

Do a search on the idler pulley. They start to whine when the bearings go bad or need greased. Had to change mine they did the same thing.

 

[ERUSH97XLT]

Idler pulleys and water pumps sound nearly the same when their bearings fail; it sounds like a grinding noise (or the classic "chirp"), not like a power steering whine.

Here's a quick way to tell if it's the idler pulley: pull off the serpentine belt and spin the pulley. If it's failing, it'll sound REALLY bad when you spin it by hand (normal pulleys should be dead quiet). Same goes for the water pump.

Let us know how it goes.

ERUSH

 

[Xylene]

The waterpump was just replaced. I will have to test the Idler pulley.

 

[Xylene]

Idler Pulley

It turned out to be the bottom idler pulley. It was hiding under tension pulley so I couldn't see it from the top. I had to climb under the car to see that it was there. Cost a few bucks and about 20 minutes to replace and the squeal was gone.

 

[swshawaii]

Squealing lower idler pulley for FIVE years or did you replace it right after the water pump?

Glad it's fixed now and thanks for the follow up. Better late than never like a few fail to do. LOL

 

[Xylene]

Follow up

I was reading through my old posts and realized I never followed up, I fixed it right after the waterpump. I had checked the upper idler pulley and didn't see anything wrong with it, but I didn't realize there was one more hiding at the bottom. The girl at AutoZone pointed out that on my car I had a 2nd one on the bottom.