Yesterday I washed my engine bay.

Specifically, I had a leak from around the cam position sensor so after addressing that, I cleaned the oily mess with detergent and the hose.

After the washdown I blew everything dry with air, moved the car into the garage and there it sat for the night.

This morning I started it up to hear an annoying whine coming from one of the accessories or a pulley on the passenger side of the engine... the sound is a whine that changes pitch with changes in RPM.

Prior to my ****-retentive cleaning session, I had no noise at all.

I know this is a totally lame Q to be asking but does this ring anyone's bell?

I'm thinking I oughta pull the idler pulley to see if that's the culprit.

 

ullhm.....just check at it man.Does it make the noise while in neutral/park.?

 

take a long screwdriver put the handle to your ear and place the tip on the alternator, ps pump and a/c compressor and slightly rev the engine and try and pinpoint the noise.

 

Did oil drip on any of the belts/pulleys?

 

Not that's apparent... belts look pretty good.

Took out my stethoscope last night and "think" it's the idler pulley.

Gotta check out the A/C compressor possibility though.

Based on the fact that my air went out a couple weeks ago (prior to my wash-down), that's a real possibility.