Hey guys,
at first a want to say hello from Germany
My Name is Franz, I'm 26 years old and a proud owner of 2000 Nissan Maxima A33.
Now to my problem:

Since a few month I got a stupid and annoying whistle noise on the left side of my engine. I had replaced different parts but the problem still exists so maybe you have an idea about it.
In the german Nissanboard does no one have realy an idea about it because it's a little bit complicated in how this problem exists.

The whistle comes from the close surroundings of the generator. When everything is of (means when I remove the belt for the compressor and generator) the noise is completly gone!
So have anyone an idea? I always checked the compressor and the belt stretcher and they are fine. I replaced the generator because the voltage was very low and the belt is also a new one but there was now sign of any improvment.

Here is a video to this whistle sound: Whistle Sound Video

Greetings Franz

 

Hey there Franz!

If the noise goes away when you remove the belt, then some accessory driven by the belt is the problem. Spin and pull each pulley by hand; there should be no play or odd noises.

 

So there is no common problem damn. Always checked it when the belt was runing through a stethoscope. The Sound wasn't hearable at the A/C compressor, the generator or the belt stretcher.
Only at a upper mounting of the generator there was a clear sound hearable =/

Could it be possible that this noise is generated by the generator because of a problem with the batterie? For example if a electric wire is in a bad condition?
Like said I before, when I changed the generator, the same issue was also there with the old one.
It has started totaly random when a visited the city with my family. I turned of the car we had take a walk and then this terrible whistle has started.

It's confusing and anoying ^^

There are also no fault codes which leads to a problem =/

 

I have heard alternators make high pitch sounds that you could say sounds like a whistle, but I do not think I have ever heard a sound exactly like yours. Bearings make noise when the start to go bad and alternators can make noise when it is producing a high amount of amperage.

Listening to the video, it sounds like you have a diesel engine. Does the car have a diesel engine. United States Maxima cars do not. Does the belt that runs the alternator and air conditioning compressor run any other device?

Another test to see if the alternator is making the noise, remove the small wire harness plug from the alternator and start the car. Without the wire plugged in, the alternator will not produce any amperage to charge the battery. This would eliminate the noise being electrical.

 

 

Hey today I found some time a little bit later and have pluged out the wire harness of the generator on my maxima and the result was that the noise was away.
So it seems to be an electric problem, but should it be? is it possible that there is a faulty wire and how could I figure this out?

Have a nice day

 

So any news about how you solved this issue? Having sadly the same problem...Sometimes it sounds weird, sometimes not.
Thx lads!

 

If you think is an electric problem, check the charge of the generator- alternator see that is working properly. I think you should also check the pulley of the generator as they tend to whistle. Hope it helps

 

i always thought that's just the normal sound of an alternator when it's trying to charge a dead battery.

 

Alternator is at about 14-14.2 Volts while driving. The battery is 12 months old, transmission is also working fine so I doubt the humming/whistling comes from it.

It's just making me crazy. **it!!!