Strange Whining Sound - BMW Forum

ben_t · 08-01-2005, 06:18 AM

Hi gurus.

I am a little confused

as to a strange loud whining sound coming from the engine bay. It only occurs above 1500 RPM and increases with the RPM. It is higher pitch then the normal engine sounds and is indepedant of the road speed. The hydraulic and aux fan works as normal.
There is no noticable loss in power or increase in fuel consumption and drives like normal, except for the whining sound.

Any ideas?

CosmosBlack · 08-01-2005, 09:24 PM

Is it a whining...or more of a whistling sound?
Could be a belt,
or a vacuum leak from the oil separator

sp0rky · 08-04-2005, 03:31 PM

I wanted to say it could be an always-engaged fan clutch, but you say it's high pitched. hmmm........ The fan clutch is more of a whirring sound of air.

Does that model have any form of "active steering" or electronically assisted steering? The electric motors as they get old tend to do that.

///Matt · 08-06-2005, 09:04 AM

I had a sound similar to that...mine was high pitched sound and whined like metal-on-metal... This turned out to be my alternator... $600 later, it was replaced.

///M Power · 08-06-2005, 09:31 PM

Probably your wife.

bimmer3214 · 08-06-2005, 10:56 PM

same probablem asked it awhile ago nobody responded i believe

ben_t · 08-15-2005, 06:46 PM

Thanks for all of the replies.
It was the belts. I gave them a clean with soapy water but now there's another problem.
Driving for the first 10 min or so in the morning (after it has been sitting overnight in sub-zero temp) the whining sound is still there. But after 10 min the whining goes away and all is fine. Could there be a problem with the tension of the belts, even though I didn't adjust the tension? I checked the tension when I was cleaning them (pressed the belts with my finger midway between the pulleys and there was about 1/2" of slack).
Whilst it is cold could the belts be putting too much tension on the pulleys/bearing that could cause problems?
However if I loosened the belts wouldn't there be a problem when the engine is warm and would cause slipping?

Thoroughly confused

Rookie · 08-15-2005, 06:56 PM

I think every car I have owned in the last 3 years has had the same problem. It whines and sounds like a belt "slightly" slipping until the car gets warm and then it doesn't make any noise at all.

mycarblows · 08-19-2005, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ben_t@Aug 15 2005, 06:46 PM
Thanks for all of the replies.
It was the belts. I gave them a clean with soapy water but now there's another problem.
Driving for the first 10 min or so in the morning (after it has been sitting overnight in sub-zero temp) the whining sound is still there. But after 10 min the whining goes away and all is fine. Could there be a problem with the tension of the belts, even though I didn't adjust the tension? I checked the tension when I was cleaning them (pressed the belts with my finger midway between the pulleys and there was about 1/2" of slack).
Whilst it is cold could the belts be putting too much tension on the pulleys/bearing that could cause problems?
However if I loosened the belts wouldn't there be a problem when the engine is warm and would cause slipping?

Thoroughly confused

[snapback]369792[/snapback]

that used to happen in my old 85 volswagon vanagon. its definately your belt. You can try replacing it. It shouldnt be more than about 20 bucks. It might work/might not. But whats happeneing is that your belt is so cold in the morning that it slips until it heats up and grabs....kinda like tires. you could try and adjust the tension just a little too. Make it a little tighter.