high-pitched engine whine

[mudpuppy11]

My 1985 MR2 recently has been giving off a high pitched whining sound from the engine compartment. This only happens after it has warmed up quite a bit. The whining stops during acceleration.

I have basically no experience working with cars. I just brought my car to college with me, and I'm working on learning more about it so I can do basic maintenance myself. I've gone through both the owner's manual and the maintenance manual looking for anything about high-pitched whines and can't seem to find anything.

My question is, is this the kind of problem that I can take care of myself, or is it bad enough that I need to take my car to a shop? (I'm a little distrustful of letting people who aren't familiar with my car work on it, and as I said, I would like to learn more about my car myself.)

Thanks for the help!

[new echo owner]

Need more information than what you have there. Does it make the noise sitting there idling, or ? Which side of the engine compartment is the noise coming from, engine side or transmission side? How would you describe the noise, give some example as to something we can relate to without actually being there?

Whether you can take care of it yourself depend very much on what it is and how mechanically incline you are. Learning is good, but you do have to learn how to realize when you are in over your head on certain type of work.

N.E.O.

[mudpuppy11]

The noise continues when it's idling. But stops as soon as the car turns off.

I don't know exactly where the sound is coming from, but more so from the right side of the car than the left. It's a continuous, high-pitched whine, similar to the "door ajar" noise on the car.

[new echo owner]

Have you check for loose belts? I think there is an electric fan mounted right by there too.

If you want to learn more about your car, get a manual so you can identify the components and do some of the maintenance repair too.

N.E.O.

[tHa kNiGHt FaLL]

whinning at idle when warm isn't a common problem i can think off.

at first start when cold.

from a man trans w/ the clutch out.

at idle hot or cold but all the time.

but unless its the alt belt assuming you don't have power steering its probably not something your gonna be able to fix w/ any kind of certainty. i'd take it in somewhere and atleast have them diagnose the problem, quote you for repair. then you could do some research and see how complicated its going to be.

[mudpuppy11]

Thanks for all the the help! I'm going to take a look at the belts and probably will end up taking it to a dealer for an official diagnosis.

I've got a maintenance manual that I've been consulting, but now that I know better where I should look, I think I'll get a little further. Thanks, everyone.