My 2002 makes a ringing noise at idle when it's cold. After it's fully warmed up, the noise is gone. I've looked into it with the hood up and it definitely sounds like it's coming from either the alternator, or one of the other pulleys. Personally I suspect a bad bearing someplace. My theory is the alt is loading the motor when it's cold, recharging the battery after starting. It could be the alt bearing, or It might also be a bearing in one of the idler tension pulleys or something, but I don't know.

Anybody have experience with this problem or any commonly known issues with 2002's that might confirm this for me?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Guys

Steve

 

check out http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=382295

also It could be a lot of things... mine happen to be the pulley and a new belt because it was ripped apart. Once i had gotten it installed, I had a defective pulley and had to get it replaced once again. Im thinking you need new bults

how many miles do you have?

 

Car has around 47k miles on it. I think I may have figured it out since it only makes this noise if the front defrost is turned on. This is firing up the AC compressor.

You may be right regardless. A new belt isn't that expensive to try, and I can check out the pulleys while I'm at it.

Thanks - any other ideas please let me know.

Steve

 

had the same noise and thought it was the alternator too but closer inspection found it was not the alternator but the a/c clutch plates slightly touching when the a/c is off. problem verified just by turning on the /ac. noise goes away, returns when the a/c is turned off. i could fix it but it's not annoying enough to do anything about it. and the risk of messing up the clutch is too great vs. the reward of stopping this noise. i'd ignore it.