2010 Aveo - strap whining

[davalc89]

Alright, here's a good one.

I've been having a bad case of strap whining lately. The car is a 2010 Chevy Aveo with no a/c. I've tried the ''spray water on belt'' trick and it didn't change the noise. I took off both serpentine and power steering belt to check for loose or grinding pulley to no avail.

Thinking it might be the tensioner spring getting looser I got a new tensioner and a set of Goodyear Gatorback belts that are supposed to help with whining if it would be a case of pulley misalignment, it didn't help.

So here's some other clues...

- The whining is NEVER present when the car is started, it might start 5 minutes afterward, sometime 10 minutes, sometime for a short trip it won't happen at all.

- The noise come on and off sometimes like a switch. I'll be at a light, it will be whining and all of a sudden it literally stops, I touch the gas few seconds later, it comes on again. Being a belt and driven by the engine the noise will change depending on load applied to the clutch. Because of this I would suspect it's not a bearing, when a bearing is bad, it's bad all the times.

- It can't be the power steering pump because I tried it without the p/s belt and it was doing it. It can't be the tensioner because it's new. What's left....alternator (pulley was ok), water pump (pulley was ok).

It is starting to get me crazy... Thx

[Newborn]

my alternator was making a whining noise not too long ago. made my car sound like a toy car revving up. Didn't sound like a belt screech though.

I checked the pulley and of course no noise came out, it only happens when the alternator gets power.

I would try unplugging the alternator, which is actually sorta hard to do on these things. I had to get under my car and get a flathead to take the plug out.