something is making a strange noise... video inside..help

[Jrs3800]

The power steering pump will not free wheel like the rest...

Have you replace the Tensioner pulley? This one should not free wheel either, neither should the water pump... The Alt and the AC Pulley should free wheel a bit( the compressor pulley more than the alternator pulley )

[Bob Dillon]

If you took the belt off and the noise disappeared, it's not the bottom end, although that sound in the first video sounds like a rod bearing getting ready to spin to me. And then there's the oil pressure problem. My car, with 175K, has oil pressure of about 50 at idle. 20 at idle is adequate, but doesn't speak well to engine condition. Does the OP jump up when engine speed increases?

Like everyone else says, check the various pulleys. I think that's where you'll find your problem. The oil pressure is something else. You may have toasted the bottom end.

Good luck and please update this thread when the problem is solved.

P.S. Man, videos help a ton!

[teleplayer]

When you say the voltage goes down below 12 volts, are you actually measuring it or is this just what the dashboard is telling you? The fact that the noise is associated with a change in your dashboard readings is the key to this problem.

If the voltage is really going that low, measured with a separate meter, then you have an electrical problem. For instance, a bad cell in the battery that is loading down the alternator. If you put a big enough load on an alternator, they can make a lot of noise. So first you need to measure the voltage with a voltmeter, at the battery. If the voltage is staying between 13-14 Volts, then your dash is being affected by something else, which probably explains why it is telling you that the oil pressure is low - maybe it is not.

It is very very hard to tell what component is making noise in the belt area by just listening. Please be careful and don't get hurt around those belts. One of my tensioner pulleys was noisy and it sounded like the whole engine was going to come apart.

All those heavy electrical cables coming off the battery and draped around the engine make me nervous. They need to be routed away from the engine and securely attached. They should NOT be lying on the engine, or close to the belts. Make sure you are not putting a big load on the alternator because of something attached to those cables. In fact I would disconnect all that from the battery until your problem is solved.

[Bugsi]

I'm glad somebody mentioned those power cables you've got routed all over your engine bay. You should definitely reroute those in the long term, if you get this problem figured out and haven't toasted your engine. I can give you pics of how I ran my wires, which would be far better for you than where you're running yours right now.

I don't know where your noise is coming from, and everything I'm about to say has already been said by other people already, but to give you some things to look at:

(1) That noise really does sound like a toasted bottom end. You asked if that was a very very bad thing. Yes, it is, it means you'd be looking at an engine swap or an engine rebuild, or at just replacing the car. If this is the problem, it will eventually become obvious. Maybe the bottom end is fine, but it does sound very much like bottom end failure, even if that's not what it is.

(2) My tensioner pulley was making noises before it seized. I think you already said you replaced yours. Maybe you got a bad one?

(3) It is completely possible to get a bum replacement power steering pump. Just because you just replaced it doesn't mean it isn't at fault. When my PS pump was replaced, the replacement was not good, I had "dead" spots near the limits of full left and full right steering. Replacing the replacement power steering pump fixed that. When I wrote about that a year or so ago, I got 3 or 4 "me too" replies with people who got bum rebuilt PS pumps. So maybe it's still your PS pump.

(4) Having removed the belt and having your noise go away really does indicate a pulley and tends to not indicate a bad bottom end on the engine. It could be the AC. It could be the PS. It could be the tensioner.

(5) Hypothetically, if something is binding or slipping, causing the belt to your alternator to slow down when your engine is in that "sounds like it's about to die" moment, then that might be causing an electrical fluctuation that makes your gauges dip. So you might have no electrical problem at all. Having said that, is your battery at all questionable?

(6) It is also possible that you have two separate things wrong at the same time, like maybe a bad PS pulley AND a toasted bottom end. But if you have more than one thing wrong, you'd figure you'd have an easier time finding at least one of them, y'know?

So there's a bunch of things to take a look at.

[Roadtech195]

^ Amen teleplayer, I would also suggest getting you power cable off the top of your coils. There are other suggestions too but they are not topic related. I don't think its your power steering. You might have a bent pulley rubbing up against something but I am willing to bet on your alternator going out. New alts are cheap, go get one and see if your problems go away. I would go with the highest amp rating you can find. By looking at all those wires under your hood you must be puttin down some thump in the trunk and that will kill your alt.

[teleplayer]

BTW, I purchased a supercharger tensioner pulley last week, a goodyear part. After 2 hours of running all the grease melted out of it and it was screaming at me. When I took it off, guess what was printed on the ball bearing? CHINA I'm so sick of cheap crap for sale. And it is even happening at the dealer - the last GM fuel filter I bought was not made in the US either. I really want to boycott everything made in China, I just don't know if it's even possible.

[88bonnsse]

If you took the belt off and the noise disappeared, it's not the bottom end, although that sound in the first video sounds like a rod bearing getting ready to spin to me. And then there's the oil pressure problem. My car, with 175K, has oil pressure of about 50 at idle. 20 at idle is adequate, but doesn't speak well to engine condition. Does the OP jump up when engine speed increases?

Like everyone else says, check the various pulleys. I think that's where you'll find your problem. The oil pressure is something else. You may have toasted the bottom end.

Good luck and please update this thread when the problem is solved.

P.S. Man, videos help a ton!

yes the oil pressure will jump up mice and high along with the voltage when engine speed increases..
and the oil pressure and battery voltage will both be very good untill the noise comes.. once the noise starts they both drop very low.. and some times when the car sits a while and i start it up there is no noise and the oil pressure and voltage are nice and high as could be untill the noise comes back.. make any sense to you,,


and i figured the videos would be alot better then me typing (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)
and saying thats the noise its making. .. im glad the videos helped...

[88bonnsse]

^ Amen teleplayer, I would also suggest getting you power cable off the top of your coils. There are other suggestions too but they are not topic related. I don't think its your power steering. You might have a bent pulley rubbing up against something but I am willing to bet on your alternator going out. New alts are cheap, go get one and see if your problems go away. I would go with the highest amp rating you can find. By looking at all those wires under your hood you must be puttin down some thump in the trunk and that will kill your alt.

like i stated my power steering pulley does look a lil off.. its noticable when you look straight down at it..

not sure if its bent or on a lil slanted,,

and i dont have any of the stereo wires hooked up at this time.. they have been off for a while now..

and i tried 5 different alternators and its the same identical noise... its possible all 5 are bad but i highly doubt i got 5 bad alts making the same identical noise,,,




and i will test the battery voltage with a meter even tho the cluster says its low..


o.k well i just tested the battery and the alternator with my multimeter and supprisingly the alternator is reading 14.10 volts
and the battery is reading 14.8 volts,,,

but on the dash in my car its only reading at maybe 12 volts.. no where near 14v..

but the needles on the dash drop when the noise appears and they they go back up when the noise disapears.

but the alt and battery are reading 14.10volts directly even with the noise.

how can that be.. a bad instrument panel.?

but that would have nothing to do with the noise...

[teleplayer]

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out how the noise and the gauges are related. If the two things always coincide, then they have to be related.

My theory is that you could be shorting out something that lowers the voltage that powers the cluster, without dropping your main voltage.

Please check your wiring very carefully, especially any wiring that you had to move or disturb when you did the intake manifold job. Make sure it isn't pinched underneath something, or rubbing on any moving parts, etc.

[Bugsi]

I suspected that's what you were going to find. I think your dash gauges are reading faulty as a byproduct of your pulley/noise problem and that your voltage and oil pressures are good. My guess is that you need a new power steering pump pulley, and if you replace that, I expect your gauges problem will completely go away.

Try getting a pulley from a wrecker or just ordering one. If it's a dealer only part, check gmpartsdirect.