Hey, figured I would post this while Im trying to diagnose all my problems

This video is from a few months ago when we had some BELOW FREEZING weather for about a week. After the car had warmed up for a while, a very annoying and loud whine could be heard from the engine bay. I could hear it with the hood closed, but it was only making the noise at just above idle or very low speed from what i could tell. After the wether had warmed up, the noise went away, and has not come back since. Im still kind of worried about it, but I have not determined what the problem was.

I'm inclined to think it was a bearing pulley, or a vacuum leak somewhere that was made apparent from the temperature of the air, but again i really don't know and I couldn't pin point the sound. Anyone ever hear this awful sound before?

 

That sounds like a frozen belt driven bearing that is not at all happy about being forced to move at temps that cold. The resulting resonation of the pully making some of the bellish notes.

32 degrees below zero is damn cold. Our cars don't like cold very much, and that is about as cold as it ever gets any place that an S resides.

 

Holy ball bearings, thanks for pointing that out. IT WAS NOT 32 BELOW ZERO, that was a typo. It was about 15-20F degrees when i shot this video, not nearly as cold as i had first described. Sorry for that typo. I don't know how i didn't catch that.

 

For anyone who may have read this before, the Temp was NOT -32 degrees. Rather, it was below 32F degrees, in the teens to be more precise. Thanks to Car Analogy for pointing that out.

 

Is the engine all oem? Any aftermarket parts installed?

 

good luck finding that noise...

 

From what I understand Billman, the engine is all OEM parts. The car has had two previous owners. The last guy to have it got it with about 20k and i know him personally, he only took the car into the Honda dealership.

This sound was recorded about 5 months ago, when it was the dead of winter and COLD outside. The noise only surfaced after the car was sufficiently warmed up, and went away over night when it cooled back down. This sound lasted 2 days only. Then the ambient temperature went up into the 50s and the sound has never come back.

two things to take notice are that the tensioner pully indicater is just past the mark to replace the belt, i ordered a belt but accidentally ordered a CR belt that is shorter due to lack of an AC compressor. So istill have not changed the belt. Also, when i was checking for play in the pullys, i noticed one having just a small amount of lateral play. I plan on switching the bearings out, as well as a new belt. But was hoping someone had a more definitive diagnosis because im some what blindly changing parts out on this.

The noise was so loud that i could not properly decifer even generally where it was coming from under the hood.
It bothers me that it went away, and i hope thatnit doesnt come back but its a bit unnerving to near and not know where its coming from.

 

well you were absolutely right. It was in fact an unhappy bearing in the idler pulley. The sound came back louder than ever, I put a stethoscope in the pulley bolt and nearly blew out my ear drums. Got some replacement pulleys off amazon for about 7$ Each. I replaced the idler pulley bearing, as well as the auto tensioner pulley bearing since it had some play in it and the bearings are the same size. Problem sound went away and car runs quieter.

thanks to all the people who chimed in

 

glad you found a solution. seems so rare that people listen to the suggestions of others, apply what they know, fix it, and report back to us what it was.