Rep Power: 0

I noticed a humming/whining sound coming from my timing belt. Its not obnoxiously loud, but you can definitely hear it once you pop the hood, or get close to the front of the car.

The car does NOT have a/c, so I've ruled out that possibility. It is coming from the timing belt area.

Any ideas?

 
Rep Power: 518

Remove all accessory belts. Run the engine, see if the noise is gone.
If quiet now, then you should be able to tell where to look for the noise (I hope).

Still noisy? Get a stethoscope. Run the engine and probe around to find where it is loudest.

Pull the timing covers off. See if the timing belt is too tight (they can howl when too tight).
Then stethoscope the water pump casting, and the bolt that holds the tensioner pulley on. See if one of those is screaming loud through the stethoscope.


Usually, when you have a bad bearing in something, you can feel the roughness when you spin it by hand.

HTH