Whining Noise

kenk · Post by **kenk** » 17 Nov 2004, 08:43

i remember on volvospeed someone (i think it was Rich) said to take off the oil filler cap, and look in, and you should see oil up there while its running.... Im not sure how our whine / moan could come from the engine....

hmmm seems like guys with really low miles have this too. The last mechanic that looked at my car about a year ago though it was the alternator working really hard.... mabye, seems like a strech. He did not seem concerned by the noise.

Im tempted to say we have a combo of the tensioner, and the alternator, since im getting noise from both, the tensioner seems to be a whine, the alternator seems to be more of a bearing rattle, really hard to tell where its coming from... mabye i should jsut replace both and count my blessings after 172k.... well ive got a 2000 mile trip this thanksgiving so hopefully it lasts till after that...

Post by **matthew1** » 17 Nov 2004, 10:44

Im not sure how our whine / moan could come from the engine....

Agreed. It's more of a belt, rubbing, non-metallic sound.

bmwrtrider · Post by **bmwrtrider** » 18 Nov 2004, 09:12

Guest wrote:97 850 t-5

When my engine is cold and I gently accelerate there is a noticeable whining sound. However, it fades away after the initial acceleration and once the engine is warm the whining goes away from stand still starts.

Any ideas on what it could be?

Thanks

A whining sound usually means alternator problems. I had it on my Nissan and, after replacing the alternator it dissapeared. I had it on my Volvo 850 and, after a few weeks, the alternator completely gave up.
Hope this helps.

parksah07 · Post by **parksah07** » 19 Nov 2004, 01:46

its only in cold weather so i dunno if its the alt, i think we just baby our cars too much, if we sat outside all night and then were driven in the cold we would moan,

im just kidding around, what i do find is that i hear this sound only when im late for work and dont get much time to let the car warm up, by the 1-2km mark i dont hear it at all,

Post by **matthew1** » 19 Nov 2004, 11:11

Air pump runs for the first few minutes, and that's been mentioned as a possible culprit.

kenk · Post by **kenk** » 19 Dec 2004, 15:58

After some poking around its the air pump making the whine, i can't really see replacing it in the cold (its about 5 degrees here right now), but at least my noise is def coming from there. Its very easy to mistake it as coming from the belt area, since there is little to block the sounds from bouncing around the front of the engine bay.

I'm kinda thinking when its warmer it'd be pretty easy to pull the thing, and oil it.... I hope.

guptash · Post by **guptash** » 19 Dec 2004, 20:25

My 95 850 non-turbo makes the same sound during winter, and my simple solution is to give it time to warm up and not drive it like a performance car during winter (I don't do that otherwise either). I would hate to fix until broke.

Treat the car with care and it will be your great companion.

mko · Post by **mko** » 05 Jan 2005, 13:58

the car I recently purchased is doing the same thing... the whine is LOUD, but as everyone says goes away after the car warms up... no longer than 5 minutes....

niels · Post by **niels** » 19 Sep 2005, 14:05

Great site.

When a solution to the mistery moan has been found will you guys post it? We just bought a 98 V70R with 64K and it makes the moan on cooler mornings. Our noise is definately more of a moan than a whine, almost the kind of vacuum noise that the vent baffles make in an old 240 when changing the settings. It does change with with rpm and goes away by the time I'm at the end of our street.

I'm a bit leary about the car as it's the most hi-tech volvo I've owned and I've just thrown a lump of dough at the fuel pump.

Niels

rp850 · Post by **rp850** » 22 Sep 2005, 23:43

I have it too. Only in cold weather. 131K miles.