Kizashi Club

Not that I expect to diagnose it over the forum, more of a sympathy post I guess . 170K mostly trouble fee miles, so it has caused me some alarm. Kind of a whining, whirling noise from the front of the engine...pulleys, water pump, etc. Changes pitch with the RPMs. No other performance symptoms. When I get home (at work as I write this) I'll get a stethoscope and of a couple of buddies to mull over it.

Sounds as if you've got a good sense of where to look. Old Tech has stated numerous times that the belt tensioner is problematic. You can take off the belt and run the engine for a couple of seconds, if the sound goes away then you're down to water pump, alternator, A/C compressor, two idlers, and the tensioner.

With the stethoscope, It sure seems to be coming from the Alternator...that thing was just singing! Can also smell something get hot and burning, bearings maybe? I'm going to get a new tensioner too as I know I'm on borrowed time with that as well.

On the alternator, I would probably go with a used one sourced through car-part.com as rare and as trouble free this oem unit has been. I would have thought you were going to say it was a water pump. Thats the first bearing to fail here typically. On the tensioner, you may want to review " cheap fix belt tensioner" under technical. For water pumps, I use Aisin from Rock auto. On the tensioner, I stock a brand called JIKIU from fitinpart.sg but it takes to long for you to deal with for one part. I would try a Febest brand . Ebay $62.00 currently

Great tips...thank you

Got the Alternator and tensioner replaced. On first start up I still had a slightly different noise which absolutely angered me! The next morning I went out with the stethoscope to figure out what part did me wrong this time, but everything seems all good now! Was that initial noise just some "break in"? I'm keeping the stethoscope with me for a few days in case the noise returns. Also a sigh of relief...there was a weird smell that I think was coming from the burning up alternator (it was a new smell to me so I didn't put the two together until the alternator started making it's noise, the smell had actually start several weeks earlier). That smell is noticeably absent as well! I did find a rattle in one of the Idler pullies while the belt was off and will change that out soon for good measure.