BobMax

'99 Max with 180K miles. Never replaced anything on the engine aside from a coil. Getting a lot of rotational noise that sounds like an accessory bearing. Rough, rotational noise. A quick listen with a stethoscope did not really pin down the problem. A few questions:

- Is the water pump driven by the serp belt on this engine? Or is it driven some other way. (I plan to loosen the serp belt and listen ... but I'm wondering what items I'm testing if I do that.

- If the water pump bearings are bad, will the pump wobble and cut into metal in the timing cover or some other area? Do any of the other accessories have that issue when the bearing goes bad? I'm wondering if there's high risk in not getting this fixed quickly (vs. just tolerating some noise until I pin it down).

- Is there anything else known to go that gives a noise like this?

Thanks,

mrglynis

Idler Tensioner Pulley or your AC compressor bearing. Pull the belt and turn them by hand. It will hopefully be obvious which one it is. If your ac comp bearing seizes it will snap the belt. Not the end of the world unless you cant make it home on your battery alone. If it is the AC bearing, you can bypass it for the time being with a shorter belt. 36in I believe it is.

BobMax

Thanks... I will get in there, loosen up the belt and see what's what.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

don't overlook the alternator - that was causing my noise. The belt tensioning pulley is another possibility.