Alright so my car started making this winding up noise. This is the history. I bought it with nonfunctioning A/C, and soon after the compressor blew up on my. I had it replaced and soon after, it blew up again (due to a bad compressor). Car has been running great since, A/C still works perfect. But recently this weird noise started up.

When the revs rise, you can hear the winding up noise. It sounds like my car is the one from back to the Future or something. People have asked me if it's supercharged due to the noise, and it's drowning out the sick sounding sound of my exhaust system. But I don't get it. Alternator marks great, temp is perfect, oil pressure is perfect, A/C works fine, and I never take it over 3k rpm. I've checked the oil and it too is perfect. I had it replaced along with the filter about 500 miles ago.

I'm pretty certain it's something in the belt drive system, just not sure what. Another seperate issue that I don't know if it's related or not is that sometimes, if I run the car a bit, it'll randomly start smoking out from the front when I stop at a light or something. But everything marks great. And when I pull over for a bit and try to to check it out while it's idling, it won't smoke.

So, does anyone have any idea or suggestions as to what could be causing this and what I could do to repair it? I would take it back to my mechanic, but I'm a bit on the broke side, and he's a cheapo mechanic who does more of the oil and tire change stuff, than real mechanical stuff. Well, thanks.

 

Does it get any louder when you turn your steering wheel?

 

To determine if its the belt, or a belt driven accessory, take the belt off and drive it briefly.

I'm assuming a "winding up noise" is a metallic whine that increases with engine RPM. I'm assuming that when you say something "marks great" you mean it is working OK. Does the system voltage stay high, based on the dash volt meter reading? And with regard to the A/C compressors, when they "blew up", what exactly happened - blew out the seals, lost a bearing or physically exploded?

When the car is "smoking out from the front" does it smell like coolant or a hydrocarbon, like oil or PS fluid? Have you been able to find any signs of a leak in the coolant system, the power steering or the engine? When you say the oil is "perfect" do you mean it looks clean and the level is correct, or have you had an oil analysis done?

 

Yes, by marks great I mean everything marks exactly as it should on the dash. Voltages doesn't go down or anything. And when the A/C compressor blew up, I mean literally blew to pieces. Also, I have not been able to catch a whiff of the smoke. It only smokes out for maybe a second or two at a light and all the smoke literally comes out of the front bumper. It does it very randomly and will usually do it if I ran the car a bit (raised rpm quickly and went over 3k). And yes, the oil level is marking correct and it is clean. Also, coolant levels and everything is is also where it should be.

 

have you checked your power steering fluid?

 

Powersteering fluid? Don't remember if I checked it or not. But it not hard to turn the steering wheel or anything. I'll check it tomorrow, just to be sure.

 

A pully?

 

it wont necessarily be hard to turn the steering wheel. you may have somehow gotten an air pocket in your power steering pump and it might be making noise. it would get louder when you turn the wheel. it wont be hard to turn unless you lost all fluid. just noisy. check under you car at the boots on your steering rack and see if they look wet. that's a good place to start.

 

You know. The second time I got my car back from my crappy mechanic I went somewhere and after about a 10 minute drive the car started smoking. I got out and saw it was leaking some green fluid, I think it was. Which was hitting the headers and boiling. I drove back and he bought some sort of hose for the a/c and replaced the compressor. A/C works great now and car runs great too, except for that noise that started up recently.

 

Check the power steering fluid and, if it's fine, think about replacing the belt. AC compressor oil will make it slip and if it got on the headers it possibly got on the belt or pulleys as well. I'd take off the belt and wipe down each pulley with brake cleaner on a rag to remove any residue...

While the belt is off, run the engine and listen for the whine...as mentioned above. If it isn't there, shut down the engine aand spin each component by hand. All should turn smoothly with no rumbling or noise....you'll know if something isn't right.

 

Alright, thanks for the help. I'll do it and see what's up. Thanks again.

 

4 days since suggested.... did you take the belt off or not?

 

Alright. Finally got around to it today. Took the belt off. Motor started right up, no problems and sounded great. Raised up rpms and no noise what so ever. I turned it off. Spun everything on the belt drive and everything spun pretty freely. Nothing made any sound or got stuck. I cleaned all the pulleys with degreaser and installed a new belt. Started it back up and same old noise. I also noticed that the Volt gauge was marking really high, like around 15-16 volts which seems unusually since it usually marked 12-13. So, I'm guessing it has something to do with the alternator.

 

Depends. If you ran it without the belt, the battery was discharging. When you reconnected the belt, the alternator voltage regulator would have raised the voltage to recharge the battery, same as it does after a cold start. It should slowly taper back down to the 13.5V range.

 

yup, I agree with the above post. I do know that even a small noise is amped from bearings in the pully system at and above idle. try spraying (very lightly) each bearing with some wd40 see if the noise briefly goes away. or get a car stethescope. The one you hit that makes the noise go away change. also this grinding noise can be caused by the internal rotors of your water pump which would explain the coolant leak if the bearing went out or is going out.(check the weep hole at the bottom of it for leaks)