i get a nice high pitched whine, everythings working, no codes, maybe the higher amperage alternator, ( went to a 125 ) has something to do with it??? car runs fine...

 

I doubt it's the higher amperage. How are your belts?

 

they look allright, thought i'd wait till spring/summer as they"ve only got 20,000 miles on them. idler pulley make a whine if its going south?

 

Hm belts should be fine then. The iddler pulley may be making a wine or maybe the belts need to be tightened a little.

Is there a whine all the time?

 

nope, quiet as a church tonight when i went to run some errands, i think its more when its cold and she sits for a day or 2. i had the belts adjusted twice cause i could smell rubber burning.

 

Could be the bearings on the AC compressor, mine made an awful smell and a faint noise before totally seizing.

 

Try tightening the belts. If it whines under revs while theres a load on the alt such as headlights, stereo, etc. then thats the issue.

 

well, im pretty sure bearings dont smell like burning rubber. what did it smell like? im thinking idler or ac compressor, until it totally starts going nuts, im not replacing. can you replace compressor bearings and/or re-grease them?

 

Does the whine pitch change with engine revs? Does the whine increase with alternator load such as lights? If so its probably a noisy alternator...laminations not tight.

 

I would also check your battery voltage.Some times when a battery is low the alternator is working harder to compensate for the low battery voltage and whines.A fully charged battery after it has been sitting for a while should read at least 12.6 volts.Good luck.

 

yeah, my optima yellow top is from 07, the drivers side hid blinks on real slow the first time, but then is fine. thats why i got a higher amperage alty, tryin to help the battery out handle the load. before the hid setup i never had a problem with the alternator, but i think its the combination of that and the system i have crankin in the car. and she's 16 years old and bo longer a virgin

 

It smelled like burning belts/grease/rubber smell, kinda hard to describe but it was pretty noticeable smell.

The only way you can replace the bearings is if you pull the whole pulley off the car and swap them from a junkyard compressor. I tried doing this but it is nearly impossible to get the old pulley off without damaging them.

 

Try the screwdriver/stethoscope trick. Get a long screwdriver (18-24 inches long) and press the tip on a suspect part (like the altenator housing) and put your ear on the screwdriver handle. The closer you are to the source of the noise, the louder it will be at the end of the screwdriver. There will always be low pitched "grumbling" background noise everywhere you try but a high pitched sound will come through. I did this when my altenator bearing was going bad.