wolfdogg

my alternator has been making noise since we bought he car used at 60k.

i always heard a sort of ticking sound. It almost sounded like a lifter, but a bit more pronounced from outside the engine case. One with a trained ear could hear it from a good distance with the hood closed each morning when it was cold started (by remote of course :-). this went on to about 130k, now it seems the bushings have had it.

it is actually sounding uncannily like a power steering pump, which the equinox does not have.

I determined it was the alternator after sound probing it. until it warms up, it makes the whirring noise. its gotten quite bad sounding.

What i did about 5k ago, when the noise picked up, i dripped oil over both ends of the housing letting it flow internally and externally letting it drip onto the shaft and wherever else it wanted to go. this solved it for about 1-2k. I did it again when the noise came back, this time more oil.

boy did that liberal amount of oil smell up the car the last time i tried it for a week, even with the air on recirculate. does recirculate have a small amount of fresh air intake still?? makes sense logically. And is the fresh air intake under the hood or something? That lasted again for another 1-2k

I think we can finally afford the $180 alternator from autozone (price is not exact, but hmmm, should i have ordered it from somewhere nice that somebody can recommend instead for cheaper?) Its on free order, they called us today, atleast they said they did, they actually did NOT call us, we called them. so we have 1 week to pick it up, i plan to purchase it and repair on Sunday.

ruley73

Are you sure it's the alternator? I have never heard of an alternator making a ticking sound. They usually groan (caused by worn electrical parts) or squeal (caused by worn shaft end bearing or pulley bearing).

A more likely possibility that could cause a ticking sound in that area is a belt tensioner that is fully extended and tapping the stop at the end of its range. Have you ever replaced the belt? If not, at 130K miles it is long overdue. If you have already replaced the belt, the belt tensioner may be bad.

To answer your other question, the fresh air intake is just below and in front of where the passenger side wiper blade rests. There is a replaceable cabin air filter in that location too. I'd strongly suggest replacing it if you never have. I replaced ours at ~65K miles and it was very much in need of replacement.

wolfdogg

yes, i suspected it to be the alternator, now after the sound took on a more mature noise, and changing the alternator, the ticking noise is gone. That ticking sound became a whirring bad bushing sound after another 75k which i verified after sound probing it and the squealing / whirring sound was coming directly from the alternator.

funny thing after replacing it, i realized the old alternator was well built because the whirring noise i assume was bushings, and now my voltage at idle reads about 14.1, before at idle it would read about 12.9. so it was failing in both areas at once, as opposed to one thing giving out prematurely.

I Have NO idea what was casing the ticking, either the stators, or an electrical surge? it was at the same rate as one would expect to hear a lifter, or a bit slower. thinking it was each rpm of the alternator shaft.

it set me back almost $200 after core return.

Note for those that are going to have to change theirs. I needed to rent a belt tensioner tool (free at autozone, deposit only) but in the end i wouldnt have needed it. The problem is you cant get a 3/8th ratchet in there, but when you use the tensioner tool to release it, it barely fit due to the lineup offset of the 3/8th tip, and after i did this i quickly discovered i needed to pull the air intake box and passenger motor mount after putting a jack under the left engine. then when you pull the motor mount, you can jack up the engine enough to fit the 3/8 ratchet in there, eliminating the need for the tensioner belt tool.

Just before doing it, I stumbled across a must see video tut on how to replace the belt in equinox shows the unexpected motor mount removal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCPANDjkrXA

that was cool. took about 2 hrs. was not bad at all. the harder thing was the back two bolts of the alternator, but i got those off nicely with a craftsman 3/8th ratchet and 15mm deep socket, and minor use of a 15mm ratchet wrench as well. The engine compartment gives a bit of room, and a rubber firewall to boot for knuckle-bang cushion. :-)

anyway, it did have a ticking noise since 65k when purchased, a steaty tick tick tick tick tick, when started, until alternator warmup. it wasnt too loud, infact my dad who is a very extremely experienced mechanic didnt notice it everytime i pointed it out. So i guess it was only me hearing this. Now that the alt has been changed, its guiet, and sounding good.

Ill let you know if i hear it anymore.