oldpoopie said:
I've never heard one make noise, but that doesnt mean yours isnt. Take the alternator belt off. If the noise goes away, you may be able to know. Also, at 163k, Its a safe bet to replace it.
__. My car had never shown any sign of alt pulley trouble, but one morning when I was about to be late to work I started the engine and I got a metallic rustling/scratching sound for about 2 seconds. Said to myself "gotta see how much that's gonna cost me this time when I get home from work". I drove the ~55 miles to work with no noises and then when I restarted at work that PM, there were no noises. But about a mile down the road, the outer alternator pulley came off and fell into the skid plate.
__. I agree that if he's gotten to 163K, he should change it. My car made it to 153K before it grenaded; MzLauraLee's waggin (also an '03) destroyed it's serp tensioner at about 95K miles and Tom Earl found that the pulley was locked solid on her car.
__. A swishing, zinging or bouncing noise could be the tensioner (and if the tensioner is bad, it could be that the alternator pulley is too). But a grinding or scraping noise could be the pulley. And I guess that a noise down near the alternator could be alternator itself (bearings, commutator contacts??). So, a noise around the alternator or serp belt could be any number of things. But, as we said, there's probably something wrong with the alternator pulley at 163K miles.
(PS Tom noticed the locked pulley when MzLauraLee had him change the timing belt system on her car. His order on the tools hadn't come in and we didn't have the pulley then so she took the car back to him a week or so later. I was able to go on the second trip. The replacement of the pulley without taking the alternator out was reasonably easy (the jacking the car up and pulling the skid plate was the biggest PITA) but gee, that little booger was on there *tight*!!!!! As Tom told me at the time, the belt tension tends to tighten it and it's like it's been run for 100K with an impact tightening it on there. But just a few minutes, the replacement pulley was on, skid plate back on, and car out the door.)