Weird engine noise. 78k miles
- Thread starter Perez Oscar
- Start date
Sounds like your alternator bearing is failing. That's how it sounded on mine in it's early stages before it got a lot worse and started grinding loudly. To really see if it's the bearing, take the belt off and spin the pulley with your hands. If you see it wobble a bit as you spin it or you hear it scratching/contacting the metal, then it's for sure the bearing. Also, if you see metal shavings appear around that area, then you can tell it's coming from the pulley grinding against the alternator shell. What causes the bearing to fail is someone tightening the serpentine belt too much which was the case for me.
I'd say to either rebuild your alternator or get an already rebuilt one (or a new one if you would like). You can drive like that for a bit but once the bearing fully fails, it'll lock up the pulley and the alternator will stop working. I drove with my bad bearing for about 2 months since it was too cold to swap my rebuilt alternator in but as I said, the grinding got really bad so I replaced it earlier than I wanted to but it was worth it.
I'd say to either rebuild your alternator or get an already rebuilt one (or a new one if you would like). You can drive like that for a bit but once the bearing fully fails, it'll lock up the pulley and the alternator will stop working. I drove with my bad bearing for about 2 months since it was too cold to swap my rebuilt alternator in but as I said, the grinding got really bad so I replaced it earlier than I wanted to but it was worth it.