joshthorsc

Just today while coming back from a long 3 hour drive, I noticed my car started making a loud whinning sound (like that of a supercharger). At first I thought it was from my transmission but when my car is on neutral, it still makes that high whinning pitch sound only if you rev it. Besides that the car idles fine.

In other words the noise is most noticable anywhere between 2-4,0000 rpm whether revving the engine or driving the car. My SC300 (5spd) is stock and my brother cannot find out what the problem might be. He took a guess and said that it might be the t-belt or drive belt, but all the belts has already been replaced a few months ago.

Besides the whinning noise, these are the other problems with my car but I'm not sure if they are contributing to the whinning:

-loosing coolant, but cannot find where it's leaking from
-distributor O-ring seal needs to be replaced(doing that this week and yes, it's leaking oil from there)

My 92" SC300 has 193k on the chasis and transmission, but does haver a new, but used engine I bought from attarco. If anybody have ever experienced this problem, please help. Ever since I bought this car, I've been spending sooo much money on repairs!! Could it be the altenator, belts, etc?

setwire

Check your Power Steering Fluid level.
If not low fluid level, it may be your power steering pump.

0sb0rne

Simple test... turn the A/C off and see if it still happens... if it doesn't then it's probably one of the 4 bearings inside the compressor that's gone...

HTH

Andrew

np20412

Is your radio/CD/Tape on when this happens? MY car does it all the time if the stereo is on, the whining sound is exactly as you describe and comes through the speakers.

sc250tt

Cheack Power Steering Pump , Alternator And A/c Compressor

Koma

iTrader: (3)

All three of the above are possible situations.
The PS pump could be the cause, unlikely. A good test on that is that you turn the wheel all the way left and all the way right. If it whines the most at the apex of the wheel turns than it's your PS pump.
Radio, no idea why this happens but if you have your tape deck on and rev, somehow the tape deck picks up some distortion from the engine and you hear a whine from the speakers.
Belts, the hardest ones to figure out but if you had replaced them all, I don't see what could be wrong here.
A/C can play a role as well.

joshthorsc

I just checked again and upon start up the whinning is there as soon as the rev hits 1500 rpm and then drops.

I tried turn the steering wheel but there's no whinning sound.

I shut the radio and the a/c but the noise is still there only around 1500rpm or higher. It's still drivable and feels the same (no loss of power) but the noise does worry me.

Well, thanks for the help. If I ever find whats wrong with the car, I'll post it up just in case anyone ever runs into the same problem as I did.

~Josh

eskinol

Check the tension on your belt. Usually if its too tight you get this whinning sound.

-esk

sickid

it is the pump mine started out the same way a little sqeek here and there. then got a little worse i changed the belt it stopped for 2 days then only when i put my ac on. so i though it was the ac compressor. but then it got real bad w/o ac on so i changed the fluid total flush and it was good for a week but squeeked when ac was on so i never put it on until 4 days ago it started squeeking until it got warmed up or i revved it to make it go away. then poof after work 2 days ago it squeeeked all the way home...new belt no ac and fluid flush bleed air w/ car jacked up turned wheel all the way to the left and all the way to the right numerous amounts of tims (using dextron sythetic auto trans fluid) = bad pump 315 at autozone w/ resavuoir. hope i spelt that right .. so now my car is sitting cause i am going to do a full tune up all at once so i am saving the dough..1 power steering pump, 2 timing belt and water pump, 3 did plugs,wires and valve cover gaskets just have to do the distributor o ring and cap and rotor. then maybe in a month i will do rear main seal and new clutch... then i can start mods...

eskinol

Over tensioned belt destroys pumps by putting pressure on the pulley - shaft - blades throwing off its equilibrium and shortening its life. When replacing belts, it is highly recommended to get a belt tensioner and tighten to specs. This is what causes the whinning sound. Perhaps if you loosen it the sound will go away and save your pump some life. This usually applies to most accessory parts associated with the timing and accessory belt.

-esk

zinkie13

My Q45 does this very noticeably. A whining sound usually can be contributed to a bad ground. A bad ground will make a whining sound that increases in pitch as the revs increase. It has something to do with feedback from the alternator I believe. You can buy a little black box at Radio Shack which is made to get rid of the whine. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Another thing to check. See what your dimmer is set at. I have noticed the whine is much weaker when the dimmer is either all the way up or all the way down.

bluesharp

Hey, how come nobody picked up on the fact that Josh says he's losing coolant? A lot of times when that happens, and there's no leak to be found, it's caused by a bad head gasket. Driving the car like that can, over time, damage the valves and the block. Don't mean to scare ya', but if it were me, I'd investigate this issue first, because the whining sound is probably coming from a relatively inexpensive part (compared to the engine). Oh yeah, and nobody mentioned the water pump - anything that's got a pulley and is driven by a belt could be the source of the noise.

bluesharp

I forgot to mention that SCs are famous for distributor o-ring leaks. If left unrepaired for too long, what inevitably happens is that oil drips from the distributor onto the alternator, and toasts the alternator as well. Since you said your distributor was leaking oil, it's possible that the source of the noise is a damaged (but still functioning) alternator.

joshthorsc

Thanks bluesharp and everyone else for your replies. I forgpt to mentioned that all my belts and h20 pump has already been replaced. There are oil over the altenator upon closer inspection. I just picked up my O-ring seal and will put it on this this week. The whinning does sound like it's coming from the altenator side and I will replace the altenator hopefully this week considering the I will be needing a new one in the near future.

~Josh

joshthorsc

Just finished replacing the alternator tonight and that was the problem which was causing all the whinning.

I guess after my long trip, a lot of oil dripped onto the alternator which damaged it and caused it to whine. All the light worked fine and the car started up fine except the whinning sound. It was like bluesharp said, "a damaged but functioning alternator". The whinning will sound louder according to the RPM range if revved. It sounds like a S/C or turbo whine.

So for those with the 2JZ motor, if you have a leaking distributor 0-ring seal, best to get it replace before it causes more damage. Thanks to all those who replied!!

~Josh