I bought a 97 Maxima SE about 2 months ago. It needs an Oxygen sensor (bank 1 sensor 2) and i ran my ECU code to see if there was anything else on there. Nothing.
There is this god awful noise under the hood of my car which i cant figure out what it is. Its coming from the area where the main pulley is. It gets worse when i turn my heat/vent/AC on. But its a constant thing. Any idea's on what mite be wrong?

 

I have a similar problem, but only when I have the AC on. My guess would be the belts.

 

belts come to mind, loose belt tensioner

 

Supercharger...???!

 

I wish it was a supercharge =D

So belts would be your best guess. Anything after the belts?

 

This wouldnt pertain to the noise, but it has been my experience that my radiator hoses begin dry-rotting around the same time my belts do. At least check em out.

 

Interesting. I just may do that. She only has 67k on her. I know the belts needed to be done at 60k. Its probably that. =D

Thanks for the tips

 

mine whined and sounded like poo ever sense i got it but only when cold or randomly and it was my accessory belt and all i did was loosen the bolt on the belt tensioner and tightened it using the bolt on the top pass side of engine right next to the timing chain cover tighten it until u can only twist the belt about 60 degrees or less and you should be good until u decide to change your belts thats what i did and ive been good for the time being p.s. if its the same noise its embaresing and makes your car sound like a junker with the like sqweeling whine type noise but not really like a slipping belt just high pitched nasty noise idk how to explain lol
-ryan

 

Belts....shouldnt be much at all....serpentine belt possibly!!! Might just need to be tightened

 

It kinda makes it sound like it has a supercharge, but not really. What tools do i need to tighten it? (im a n00b when it comes to under the hood kinda stuff) When going to replace what kind of belt should i buy? (i buy mechanic does work for cheap i love it)
The whole reason why i asked is because it started shortly after i installed my system (its only a 250w amp on 8awg wire) On my previous maxima i had a 1200w amp on a 4 awg wire and didnt have the problem.
So being me i thought that either A) Water pump. B) Air compressor or something having to do with AC. or C) altanator.
Hearing you guys say belts makes me feel much better cause they arnt as costly as A, B or C.

=)

 

Dried out bearing on one of your tensioners or (what I really think it is) it's your alternator giving up the ghost. One of the bearings the shafts ride on is bad or a diode is going nipples up.

 

I havent noticed any light power fluctuations. Which is why i put alternator out of my mind. But i'll have my mechanic do a full check up on my baby.
Thanks for all the help guys, any more idea's that you have are welcome =)

 

Well, from what you describe, my car seems to be doing the same thing. I have new bearings in the alternator, a new pulley assembly, and a new belt. My car makes this noise occasionally at idle only.

 

probably belts..... I changed mine and the whine went away...

 

Sounds like your altinator is starting to go? Alot of people have reported hearing this "whine" & a short while later the altinator gives out. Usually in most of the post I've read about it, this generally starts to happen after someone has pressure washed their engine compartment or has over tightened their belt...

Over tightening your belt can damage parts like (altinators, AC compressors, S/C, tentioner pulleys, bearings, seals, etc.) mainly because it would put to much pressure on these parts. Too tight will place to much force & strain on a certain area of these moving parts causing premature failure. Especially on bearings & shafts, and when you add in the fact that these parts fluctuate in RPM's that makes things even worse. So make sure not to over tighten your belt....

 

Sorry to pull up an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one on a topic easy like this one.

With that said, how do yall get the tensioner pulley loose? I tried to change my belts awhile ago, but I gave up when I couldn't loosen the tensioner pulley. I did what the FSM said, loosen the bolt beside the timing chain cover then loosen tensioner pulley. I couldn't get it loose, I also couldn't fit a ratchet(spl?) in the tight spot. Suggestions please.

Thanks,
Mooney

 

Box wrench is your friend. And work from below the car, not above.

 

I have this similar noise. Im thinking it is just the belst and idler pulley needing to be replaced. Oh, that noise is nothing compared to this other noise I have

 

I just had to adjust my belts and the image here is what I used

http://www.greghome.com/images/Maxim...DriveBelts.jpg

the two top/left pictures are for the power steering belt. as you can see there are 2 bolts that need to be loosened before adjusting the tensioner. (I dont think the 1st one needs to be loosened but I did anwyays since thats what the picture said to do). Also notice the tensioner for the PS belt is backwards (righty loosey, lefty tighty).

the alternator belt is easier as there are only two bolts to loosen and both can be easily reached from the top. First loosen the idler pulley bolt (needs quite a bit of force) and then the tensioner bolt. Make sure both bolts are pretty loose and you may have to loosen the tensioner quite a bit before the belt will come off. You should notice it gradually getting looser. If you dont then the idle pulley bolt needs to be loosened more.

hope this helps.