So a few days ago I started to hear a tiny whining sound coming from the left side(timing cover side) of the engine. My first thought was that I know that my power steering pump with leaking a bit of fluid and that thee bearing was probably going out on it. The sound slowly has gotten louder and more consistent over a few days. Today I go out to the car and start it up and decide to take a look more closely at the belts and pulleys while the car is running. I noticed and smelled the belts were rubbing something. My first thought was the idler pulley was going bad. So I took the idler pulley and the belt off. Then I figured I would start the car up without the belt and idler pulley to see if the noise when away. Well, its still there and I noticed the crank pulley looks to have some wobble. So I'm thinking the noise might actually be a main bearing gone bad which is causing the crank pulley to wobble. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lXTdZMcM-o

 

Is it just the outer ring of the crank pulley, or the inner as well wobbling around?

If just the outer, no big deal. It's a relatively common problem, just replace the crank pulley. The rubber deteriorates over time.

After that, see if the noise is still there.

 

Ok, after further investigating, indeed the outer is wobbling and the inner is not. The noise I heard was the outer part of the pulley rubbing the power steering belt. So I need a new crank pulley. Replacing the pulley will require dropping the engine and transmission out of the car, correct?

 

Err...no. Why would it?

Remove the PS belt, remove the crank pulley bolt, R&R the pulley, reinstall bolt, reinstall belts.

 

Ok, excellent! I thought you would have to use air tools to get the crank bolt off, but looks like you can fit a breaker bar in there and do the crank the engine over slightly idea and it will come right off. Thanks for your help!