Whenever my car is on there's an obnoxious whine that comes from my engine bay, and it gets a bit louder with any throttle at all. It almost sounds like a very large electric motor whirring. I can't hear it above wind noise once I get to 15mph or so, so it's not outrageous, but it bothers me nonetheless. I can definitely tell it's coming from in front of the left bank, but due to the locations of the alt and ps I can't tell which it's coming from, but definitely in that area.
I at first thought it was my power steering due to the 20k miles it ran without any maintenance before I acquired it, but a few fresh quarts of ATF didn't do anything to the noise. The power steering still works just fine, I haven't noticed any change in it since I got the car. The noise just makes me wince whenever I have my windows down (all the time). Is it possible and/or common that the P/S could be making a constant and unchanging whine without any other noticable symptoms at all?
But, this area does flood a lot and I've accidentally run through several areas of standing water in the last year, making me think that my alternator could be corroding and making the noise. Is this possible and/or common? In the past month or so my car has taken 5-6 clicks to start when it's cold instead of the usual 2-3 (which it still does while hot), so I'm getting very suspicious of my alternator.
I've driven maybe 1000 miles (~6 months) since the noise started with no change, waiting for the rogue component to break so that I could just fix it. No luck there, and I don't want to replace the alternator if there's a good chance it's the power steering.
Thanks in advance.
I at first thought it was my power steering due to the 20k miles it ran without any maintenance before I acquired it, but a few fresh quarts of ATF didn't do anything to the noise. The power steering still works just fine, I haven't noticed any change in it since I got the car. The noise just makes me wince whenever I have my windows down (all the time). Is it possible and/or common that the P/S could be making a constant and unchanging whine without any other noticable symptoms at all?
But, this area does flood a lot and I've accidentally run through several areas of standing water in the last year, making me think that my alternator could be corroding and making the noise. Is this possible and/or common? In the past month or so my car has taken 5-6 clicks to start when it's cold instead of the usual 2-3 (which it still does while hot), so I'm getting very suspicious of my alternator.
I've driven maybe 1000 miles (~6 months) since the noise started with no change, waiting for the rogue component to break so that I could just fix it. No luck there, and I don't want to replace the alternator if there's a good chance it's the power steering.
Thanks in advance.
