Hi people.

Question, my 99 G Maxima, has 165k on it, just in the last week, when cold in morning and you start the engine,

You get a quick short whine/moan from engine bay somewhere, also - sometimes, not all the time but if you dont give it a quick rev it will die instead of going to normal idle straight away , othertimes its fine.

I am suspicious of the starter motor, but also of the alternator, who knows maybe its both, car seems to run fine after that initial thing and I have not seen the battery light on at all while driving. I dont think its a belt as it sounds different to to that kind of noise.

Any opinions would be appreciated!

 

Search for starter re-grease.

 

Do you think it could be your water pump going? They always go with a whine, or maybe your ac clutch? Take a good look with the motor running same thing happened to me with my A/C clutch long story short it melted the plastic between my crank nd the crank pulley, it fell right off when the belt snapped, (it was a squeak from the ac clutch getting stuck)

 

If it whines when accelerating = Alternator

Other things to check would be the starter and possibly a belt.

 

hnnnm could be, seems to still do it while AC is off, so im leaning toward pump or starter, its a bugger to fault find it as you only get it once while cold in the morning for like a couple of seconds then its gone, no whining while accelerating so I dont think its the alternator, plus i turned it on today and turned on the lights & tested the battery with a voltmeter and it reads just over 14 volts while running with lights so that would indicate thats working ok. The starter motor was recond like a year or so back, maybe its dying now lol.