As of lately I have had a strange high pitched/groaning noise coming from the front/front-passenger portion of the engine. It comes on at idle as well as while driving. Turning the a/c on seems to exacerbate the noise however it also occurs when the a/c is off There is no power loss or change in behavior of the car. I initially thought it was the timing belt so I changed it however the noise is still there.

Hopefully the video below will help.

http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/194/o6s.mp4/

 

Bump! I am going to take a look at the power steering pump on wednesday. Thoughts?

 

Sounds like a belt rubbing somewhere... could be the power steering also

 

id check all moving parts in that area. sometimes the pullies stress and the bearings inside them start to make similar sounds. power steering pump could be a cause of noise also low fluid or just going out. hope ya figure it out. one thing you can do to kinda help find your problem is spray down the belt and pullies if you can get to them with a lubricant while the car is running. if your noise goes away then it has to he in tht general area.

 

belt id take it off and clean around there

 

When the sound initially began I thought the belt needed to be replaced. After replacing it, the sound persisted. Yesterday I took the belt off again and noticed there was a little "in-and-out" play with the power steering pump pulley. Is this normal? I also noticed the power steering fluid was a little low. Thoughts?