you might want to use a thicker grade of oil next time around,or your water pump can start to crap the bed usally the bearing gets humming then goes away thats a sign of the water pump starting to go out,i would guess that its that if you havent changed it out i would change that and the timing belt out..then work from there with 211 on the clock and most parts are OEM orignal the water pump should yhaven been changed at 120-140 the latest 150k

 

Thanks the timing belt and water pump were replaced at 120k along with tensioners. The external drive belts were replaced at 60k but don't show any cracks, that I can see. And I have been running 0-30 Mobile 1 for some time now without any noises so I don't think that is it. I run that because I live in cold climate.

 

Power steering fluid?

 

Interesting never even touched it after all these miles except about 40k ago topped it off fluid levels.

 

Dandxg: My vote goes for the alternator. I had a similar experience early this year and brought it to a tech shop. They took it apart (they do that here in PHL) and found one of the diodes (one of three pairs) going bad. They were hissing/whining on a cold start but would quiet down somewhat after warmup. They swapped out parts from surplus (junkyard) alternators and I haven't heard the whining since then. I hope this helps.

 

Thank you much. I think I have it narrowed down to alternator or water pump. I am leaning towards water pump because over the last year my car doesn't warm up enough in winter, but I listened really well and it seems to be coming from either alternator or water pump since they are next to each other.

 

Most common is PS pump. Remove the belt temporarily if you need to confirm that.

Alternator bearings go bad, especially the cheap ones used in many reman alternators.

Usually the water pump leaks when it whines. Once again cheap remans cause a lot of grief.

Good luck isolating the problem.

-SP

 

Most common is PS pump. Remove the belt temporarily if you need to confirm that.


-SP

+1...My noise is the P/S pump...

 

Amazon.com sells them starting from $8.07 topping at $20.25. This baby will redeem its price the very first time you use it to pinpoint the faulty part. Thoroughly recommended.

 

Thanks for the good suggestions folks. I am probably going to start with the cheapest route first since I am unemployed I will go to Autozone and have them run the alternator test. I am close to landing a job and was frankly thinking of buying a newer used car. I am in sales and driving 96 with 211k on it is marginal for sales appts. It still looks good but not really good enough for going on sales appts.

 

The person whom guessed power steering pump I believe you are correct. I siphoned out twice, first it was black and never had been done in 211k and put maxlife dex 3 and sound appears to be gone so thanks much to all.