For a couple of weeks now, my car (an '07 Taurus) has been making a buzzy hummy rrrrrrrr noise, that changes in pitch with the engine RPMs. As near as I can tell, the noise is coming from the vicinity of the alternator. As far as I can tell the car is running as well as ever (aside from the noise).
Does anybody know what’s causing this, and how worried I should be about it?
Might be a slipping belt. A spray can of “Belt-Ease” is cheap and quick. You’ll solve that or rule it out in two minutes.
Go down to the auto parts store, & ask them to hook up their detector box to you car’s computer.
Free diagnosis is usually offered.
Bumping, just in case there’s someone from the weekday crowd who can say, “That happened to me, too, and it was…”
Could be a bad alternator bearing, bad water pump, or bad idler pulley. Any one of which will lead to an ungraceful failure…
Get it checked out by a mechanic if you don’t have a lot of car repair experience.
Reminds me of Eggs Benedict.
Check your power steering fluid as well.
I’m with beowulff on this one. Most likely a bad alternator bearing (which would not effect charging until a complete failure). Next I’d look for the same problem, but with the power steering pump.
Makes sense to me. Thanks.
And, it did turn out to be the idler pulley.