Today on my way home, I was crossed over one of the many railroad crossings that we have here in Columbia, SC. I took it a little fast and landed hard. After riding down the road a little bit I started hearing a noise from the engine compartment. I stopped and it seems to be some kind of noise from the pulley system. It sounds like a bearing is worn. Are there known bearing issues or any way that I could grease them up without tearing the front of the engine down. I am at college with a limited supply of tools and an even smaller supply of space in which to tackle a project like this. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Brad

Take a piece of garden hose and put to your ear. Carefully position it near different pulleys (with engine running) and see if you can isolate which area the noise is coming from. If it's the bearing in the belt tensioner it can be replaced cheaply. Other candidates are, alternator, power steering, Air conditioning compressor, fan clutch which can be very expensive depending on which one it is. Wather pump or bad timing belt pulley are also possibilities.

You should also check to make sure that the fan or belt is rubbing against something.

I couldn't isolate where the noise was coming from and i don't really have a place to work so i dropped it off at the shop. I looked at belts and fan but couldn't see any rubbing or anything like that. It sounded as if a bearing had gone bad.

Mine was the AC compressor. I looked really close and saw tiny metal shavings between the unit and pulley. The only major repair in the first 80k miles.

While taking the timing cover off, the mechanic noticed one of the bolts was loose and rubbing on the dampener. He could tell the noise was coming from behind that cover but he thought that it was the tensioner at first.