My Camaro (95 lt1 6speed) just started making an incredibly annoying whining noise while driving. It gets worse as the rpm's go up... it kind of killed the nice sound of my hooker exhaust .

I've narrowed the sound down to around the alternator. I don't think it is the alternator itself, but perhaps a bearing or something nearby that has gone bad. Is there a way to easily narrow it down to the specific problem? If it is a bad bearing, how hard would that be to replace? If it is a simple fix I would love to be able to do it soon, if it is a more labor intensive task... I probably need to start saving some cash.

Any feedback as to how to fix/diagnose this issue would be great.
thanks!

 

Remove your serpentine belt and start spinning your pulleys by hand, one by one.....with the engine off of course.
You should be able to hear, and/or feel the one with a bad bearing. The difficulty of repair depends on which one is the noise maker.

 

I had an older taurus and the power steering pump would whine like hell when it got low on fluid

 

^^^ that was my first thought to frumpbud. does the whine change when turning the wheel?

 

If it does then that's it,that's what mine did

 

Nah, mine is only affected by the belt speed (louder as the rpm's increase). Turning the wheel doesn't seem to affect it.

 

It’s probably the belt tensioner easy fix with that one

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