Whistle like whine under hood

[AA Man]

Maybe someone can diagnose this problem. Have a whistling whine type sound coming fron under the hood. I suspect either the power steering pump ( which leaks ) or the water pump . Any ideas ?

 

[Jason_25]

I have the same thing. It changes along with the throttle.

 

[93Ranger]

same here, i noticed it like today or yesterday. think it is a problem to drive it?

 

[Superpie]

Yah, i have a whine that increases with RPM's, and a different whine when i cut the wheel while moving slow or while stopped. tit sounds like its coming from he ps pump... changed/checked fluid, didnt help..., looking to buy an aftermarket pump.. will that solve it?

 

[rustytr]

I had it for a while too, it just went away one day though.

 

[addkev]

I know mine is from the KKM...

 

[XLT_66]

If the sound comes with turning the wheel then is has to be the Power Steering pump....if you have a whine the increases with RPM's, i would suggest checking your belt pulleys. I had the same thing...it turns out the bearings in the idler pulley were going out. Check all the pulleys that run along the serpentine belt and make sure that they are all ok. You don't want one of them the sieze up and then your really screwed...

 

[Jason_25]

How do you check pulley bearings?

 

[Kontrol-Trak]

Maybe there's a turbo that you never knew about

 

[Jason_25]

Does anyone know how to check the pulley bearings?

 

[oahrens]

Check Chiltons....it looks pretty detailed as far as inspection/adjustments go.
It's page 1-23 on manual #26688.

 

[Steve94LTD]

maybe someone stuck a supercharger under your hood when you werent looking =P

 

[Rick]

Remove the belt and spin all the pulleys by hand. There should be no roughness to the spin. Also try to push in and out on the pulley there shouldn't be any play in the idler or tensioner pulleys. The alternator and the P/S pump may have slight end play.

I just replaced both my tensioner and idler bearings. They were both shot. They felt very rough when I spun the pulleys and that got rid of a squeal that I had.

I'm going to replace my water pump as preventive maintenace. I figure the bearings in there have to be getting pretty bad too.

 

[Stew]

Hi Guys,

Well I finally got under the hood to check my pulleys. The tensioner pulley was very rough and is probably causing my grief. I am going to the parts store tomorrow to pick one up. I also noticed that my power steering pulley is tougher to turn than the other pulleys. Is this normal?

Thanks.

 

[Rick]

Yeah that's normal because you're turning the pump and not just a bearing.

 

[Forder]

It's probably the tensioner. Mine did that for a while too, and then just yesterday, it stopped, but it was replaced by a small, fast-paced thumping noise..but It was at night and I couldn't see anything under the hood in my driveway, but I drove it anyway. This morning I was out to check it out, and the tensioner was coming off and the fan was hitting it! I went in there and tried to tighten it but it acted like it was as tight as it could get. So I pulled out on it a lil bit and it just popped off and the bold was still in the mount! The whole middle part around the tensioner was broke off around the bolt ! So it was just hanging there, heh, I'm very lucky it didn't come off comepletely and into the fan while I was driveing. I gotta go get another one somewhere. Where can I get one and how much are they?

 

[Rick]

I think they are about $30. Make SURE the part you get is the right one. Best to bring the old one with you. My Ford dealer had the wrong numbers for the part. We had to look up a tensioner for a Ranger of the same year to find one that would work.

 

[socky3850]

My 98 SOHC 4X4 Auto Sport (71K miles) also has a high pitched whistling sound which varies with engine RPM. I've had this noise for about 5K miles. I removed the serpentine belt and the sound disappeared so it's something on the front of the engine. So far I've replaced the tensioner bearing and the alternator (expensive) since the sound seemed to be coming from the passenger side of the engine. I hate to just replace parts but I'm having a real problem troubleshooting this noise. I still have the whistling sound. I hate not being able to repair this because I'm just waiting for something to break while I'm doing 70 on the expressway.