Every now and again i hear my engine making a high pitched metallic sounding noise coming from the pulleys area. Now I have a bit of a belt noise which i have been battling against with belt dressing, which comes back every so often, but this belt noise isn't high pitched. The noise I am complaining about is high pitched metallic rubbing sound, which isn't always there, but it comes back whether the car is hot or just started, it seems that it comes back more regularly when its wet outside, but I might be mistaken. Could this noise be a sign for something going bad?

Flylow, 99 lx coupe

 

Take a cut down broom handle to use as a stethascope and while the engine is running put it to the alternator and listen for bearing noise, also if you can get at it easy put it on the pump area and listen for the the bearing noise in there..

Been useing the old broom handle trick for over 25 years...works great

WheelBrokerAng [sm=americanasmiley.gif]

 

do you notice any rubber material flung up underneath the hood?

 

first off, why don't yu take care of the belt issue..............secondly is it a 4 cyl or v6........i have seen a lot of alternators go bad on the v6s ....if it is a 4 cyl. remore the p/s belt and retry. if noise still there, remove the alt belt and retry,, I know the alt belt also runs the a/c compressor, but if noise goes away , spin either 1 by hand see if you can reproduce the noise.. If noise is still there with both belts removed,, than noise is coming from inside the t-belt cover,, water pump ?? t-belt tensioner ?
But do the easy things first . take care of the belt noise and see what happens ..

 

It's a 4 cyl, the broom handle (metal tube i assume) i didn't hear any bad noise coming out of alternator, which pump were you talking about Broker? p/s? There are obviously sounds coming from the alternator through the tube but it doesn't sound like anything is wrong in there. My belts aren't making noise anymore since it got warm here in Chicago.

 

Since i started this thread i haven't heard the noise, could the noise just go away like that if there is a problem somewhere?

 

for one stop useing belt quieting stuff... that only makes it worse... if belt quieter is working on the noise... just replace the belt... u may also need to get ur alt rebuilt... or the pullys tightened... also check ur belt tensioner...

 

The one thing I would make sure it is not is the timing belt tensioner.
I have never heard of one going on a Honda before, but have heard of it on other makes.

I had a similar sound on another car, which can suffer with this type of problem. Obviously if your cam belt tensioner seizes it will most likely cause the belt to snap and I think most modern engines are interference now.

In my case it was a water pump. I found out using a similar method to what WheelBrokerAng suggested, though in my case it was a long screwdriver.

Be careful with anything metal near the HT side of you coil/HT leads, you would not want a whack from that in your lug

 

The noise is gone, engine is whisper like, i can't replicate it?! Can I stop worrying for now? [&:]

 

If it's not broke don't fix it... one thing that comes to mind for what may have been the issue is your belts (of course) the reason why you wouldn't be hearing it right now in the warmer temperatures is that when rubber (the belt) gets warmer it tends to grip a bit better... My guess would be that you had a belt slipping (either it was worn or just not tight enough) and as it got warmer it's gripping better and not slipping...