Hey guys, I've been searching for a possible explanation for a whining noise I get on cold start-up and when revs are increasing. I can hear it quite loudly on start-up, however it doesn't go away. It only becomes quieter after 10 mins of idling. While accelerating I can hear it and especially when shifting down a gear. Once I've driven her for a while and have it parked idling, I can't hear it. But if I drive again, I can still slightly hear the noise on acceleration and deceleration. The noise appears to be coming from the right side of the engine, where the power steering pump is. At first I thought it could be the power steering pump since I recently get a momentary loss of power steering whilst driving. I read a post by Tony321 who had similar symptoms. His oil pump turned out to be the cause of the noise. Thanks to Tony321 for replaying to my message but for a quicker reponse to my question I decided to post publicly. Where is the oil pump located? I can't seem to find any pics of it. None in our database or the ttz database, would anybody have any pics? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers. Ryan.
It's located behind the crank pulley. Absolute pain in the arse to get out. Timing belt and sump have to come off, so that means cross member too. So that's around 2 whole days of work if you know what you are doing!
Yep is a pain in the rear end why i haven't done mine yet The oil pump is at the bottom of this picture...
My advice is pull the engine if the pump is faulty. People do do it with the engine in place, but thats best left to experts like the greying GJ,
Yeah its not a small job. The best time to do it without pulling the engine would be together with the 100k service and then you also need to remove the sump.
make sure you check all the pulleys first before you go ripping out your engine or whatever. i had a wining noise and it turned out to be the bearings on the tension pulley for the A/C
The oil pump whine is also a classic issue with Nissan FJ20's. It often indicates a restriction on the inlet side of the pump. Usually the sump is squashed up against the oil strainer creating a restriction and the distinctive whine is very noticeable when cold and reduces, but never goes away when hot. My FJ did this but there was no restriction at all. It just did! Its made worse by higher viscosity (when cold) oils. Check you sump that it hasnt been bashed in from underneath. Worth a look. L8tr E
You guys have been awesome. Much appreciated. Matty I'm pretty sure it isn't the A/C belt idler pulley, I don't have A/C operating at all. Sorry Tassuperkart, I have no idea what an FJ20 is LOL. I will have a look at the sump, I don't think I've run over anything lately. I hardly drive her and would remember if I had. Cheers guys.
Sump ..... aussie lingo for oil pan oil pan .... what the rest of the planet calls a sump strangely enough, when a certain engine mod is done by the rest of the planet, they call it a "dry sump" .... not a "dry oil pan" Go figure silly buggers :bash: The duel names ..... apparently you can thank a certain Mr. Harley & his partner in crime for the term mixup, which happend about the time they released the panhead motor in their m/cycles which are basically a dry sump engine...... the oil pan was now on the engines heads and the engine had a dry sump ! yanks ...... typical :bash: One thing that has amused me over the years to is the service books one buys to do more mechanicle work to their cars..... Up until Valiant dissapeared from the Aust market place most aust printed books called it a sump, as soon as Mitsasquishi arrived 99% of the books changed to "oil pan" I've got some early holden and valiant books that were printed for the dealers w/shops use only....... they all use the term sump ! My more modern books IE: my HZ dealers guide, is the first that has it as an oil pan ! oil pan..... sump ....... same thing
The sort of noise you are talking about could well be the pump. I had to replace one recently that had a noise. When I got it out I found a small raised pip on one of the pump wheels that had been raised from sucking a pce of rubbish in the oil through the pump and scouring a groove in the pump wheel. It didnt do it on start up but 10 secs later started to wine in a high pitched fashion. It didnt affect the ability of the pump to pump oil but sounded bad. This points to a pretty poor service record earlier on the cars life IMO. None of my cars drained oil has particulates in it. But many cars I have worked on do. One more reason not to skip oil changes.
Just because you don't use your A/C, is no reason to dismiss the A/C drive belt idler/tensioner pulley bearing. The belt and idler/tensioner pulley are rotating constantly whenever the engine is running.:zlove:
Chilli's right, Just remove the belts one at a time. The car will run just fine for a short time with NO belts at all ( 2-3 mins max) IF the noise stops it was the last belt you pulled off. IF it is still there probably the oil pump. I actually did a partial 100K service, timing belt, rollers etc before i bowed to the inevitable and knew it was the pump.
So if the A/C drive belt isn't present on the car, it could still be the A/C idler? Joe's having a look at it anyhow, he thinks it may be the spigot bushing. I'll keep you posted.
Yeah that's what I meant by not having the A/C operating at all. Lloyd thought I just don't turn it on LOL.
