hey guys, as you might have seen, i have a really loud whining noise coming from around my alternator. checked the power steering fluid, its full. cant figure it out. mechanic diagnosed it over the phone, says its probably alternator. i still have full volts in my battery (red top optima) and still have power steering. could it possibly be just a pulley bearing on the alternator? it gets louder as i drive. gonna look for a cheap alternator now, anyone help me out on a write up to save some money on install??

also, what years for the W-body would work on my car with these parts? i see a lot of 97-98 alternators for sale, not much else though. anyone?

 

Did you take the belt off and spin everything to see if anything makes the noise?

You might not have to replace the whole alternator.

 

maybe its the supercharger?? =p

x2 on what chibi said tho, i would take the belt off and see whats whistling on its own, probably an easier and cheaper fix if its one of those

 

The alternator is easy to replace. Remove the belt, I think its two, or three bolts, and a plug. The whole alternator will come out, and then you just bolt in the new one, plug it in, reconnect the belt, and you are good to go.

I think you could buy a brand new alternator with a lifetime warranty from Autozone for around $100-150.

 

still havent had time to take the belt off. my belt is really, really long as my single belt runs my supercharger and all. i've been looking on the forums, find a cheap alternator for a quick replacement for like $50 bucks. install doesnt seem too bad, just never did it before. guess its time to get my hands dirty haha.

 

me to! I need a beginners guide for all my car needs goodluck with it! I really hope it goes ok for you

 

Still seems like a waste to me lol. What if it's not your alternator, but your tensioner?

You have to take the belt off to put the alternator on, so why not take the belt off and test everything first? I understand that it's large, but what could it take... 30 minutes tops?? Maybe just needing a second hand?

Do you have the second car to drive if you take the belt off and still want to replace the alt?

 

gonna have my guys look at it tomorrow, see whats going on with it. hoping that its nothing expensive, but for some reason i keep thinking its the water pump now. hopefully not.

 

got it checked out today, the problem was low power steering fluid. when i checked it i must have rubbed the cap/dipstick on the inside walls of it, because it came out reading normal. when the checked it, it barely had anything. that fixed the noise issue. i also had a clunking type noise on my back right wheel, they checked it out and it was actually my strut coming loose. eeek. fixed up good as new and all i did was buy them lunch! this other guy wanted $65 just to look at it and diagnose the problem. glad i took the trip back where i used to live and visited my old mechanics who have done everything to my car. practically free!

 

matt, jack up your car and look under the power steering return line. there are 2 lines on top of each other. the top one is the return line and the bottom is pressure line. since you have the same setup as mine pacesh*tter and lowering spring. look and see if the return line is touching the pacesh*tter down pipe. mine did and the return line was leaking fluid badly.