So I have a ticking noise coming from the engine bay. It's not a tick like a lifter, but it's not a squeal like a belt would make, it's kind of in the middle. The best way I can describe it is *schick* *schick* *schick* *schick* etc., etc. It happens about twice every second when the car is cold and between once and twice a second when the idle drops down below 1k.

I have a stethoscope and put it on as many things as I could on the serpentine belt but wasn't able to narrow the noise down. The only thing I didn't have an angle for was the bottom-most pulley that is in line with the engine (between the front and rear pumps on the bottom of the chassis. I think this is the belt tensioner, but I'm not sure. We tried spraying a little wd-40 on each pulley one by one and the front bottom one (water pump, I think..) seemed to make a little less noise for a second but then it was back to normal.

As suggested by yahu, i tried all my hvac controls at 10'oclock, 12'oclock, 2'oclock with cold/medium/warm air, feet/body/mix/defrost, AC, and all the way left on temp with max ac. all were done on setting 1 and 2, and i also did all of them with the fans off. none of this made a difference in the noise

I'd be happy to take videos of the noise when i get home, or try and record it on my phone and upload it and i'm game to do things. I can't really pull anything off the car at this time as I daily it, but it will be up on stand this weekend regardless to do the 30k fluid change

if anyone has any ideas, or has had this sound before and knows how to fix it, please let me know and i will do my best to try it and report back

thanks!

 

Is there anything possibly caught in the serpentne belt smacking something?

 

lifters?

 

You mean rotating with the belt? not that I nor my friend saw when we were trying to diagnose it the first time

 

if you turn the steering wheel lock to lock, does the sound change?

 

no, not lifters. I didn't mean an actual tick when I said that, but it's different from a squeal. I don't know what bad pump bearings sound like but it sounds like a bearing somewhere isn't in great shape and it's rubbing as it turns


nope, no change

 

Hhhmmm, a video with clear audio may make this a little easier, see if you could get us one

 

no video yet, i took this with my iphone so of course, i find out it's in .m4a format. if you have the k-lite codec pack you should be able to play it, i'd imagine quicktime might play .m4a also...apologies in advance

http://www.catmandoo.biz/files/Memo.m4a

this was taken with the phone sitting on the ground about 3" diagonally in front of the right front tire under the engine bay. last 30-45 seconds is where the rpm's drop to ~1200 and you can hear the noise better

edit: i guess winamp can play the file (www.winamp.com, it's free if you don't have it). i would test but i'm at work and have no sound anyways

 

Its either your belt or the pulley above the crank pulley to the right. I think that pulley is called serpentine belt Idler Pulley.

 

I think you're having the notorious EVO 9 sound. I have the same issue, and there have been many discussions about this noise. Some people have had it fixed by doing the same thing and others do different things. Supposedly there is a bracket from the "DEVIL" the dealership that helps but I can't find one. Some people have done their 60k timing belt service and fixed it. I notice mine is louder when could then slows down when warm and the car idles lower just like yours does. Check this out mine seems to go away when at higher RPMs. I was told from someone at a shop that this is notorious with the MiVEC cam pulley, and that the pulleys and tennsioners that have to do with the timing and balancer belts go bad or get miss-aligned and get extra wear and go bad.

 

I cant get the video to even download not sure why, try to get another video or sound clip and I'll do that as well to show what mine sounds like.

 

if you right click you can do save link as and save it that way. i just clicked on it and it played in my browser, maybe my web host has .m4a support or maybe it's because i have Chrome and not internet explorer

 

i think ^^ homeboy got it nailed....either those or (knock on wood), possibly timing belt tensioner rubbing on somethin, best bet remove serp belt, check pullies for worn in the grooves, any kind of heat burnt up on the pullies, spin each pulley to diagnose noise. If all is well since your there remove timing belt cover, and check the idler pulley for timing belt...good luck

 

I got the video to work, used real player. I'm not sure if thats exactly the same but still probably has to do with the common evo 9 issue. I will video mine and post it here in just a little bit.

 

i would agree