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hey guys...I thought I had a vacuum leak because i was getting a noise everytime i accelerated....no after ripping a bunch of stuff apart and looking around I dont think its a vac leak. My sister bf stopped by today and he thinks its a bearing in my power steering pump going...thats why it speeds up when i speed up ..it never completely goes away but is more noticeable when accelerating. I also sucked some of the fluid out of the resivoir...it was dark browny black and smelt burnt and there was a bit of grit in it...so this could well be the issue. For now i put in some fresh atf+4.....i am thinking of changing pumps...i have an extra one sitting in my garage, and i know its not hard to swap.

what are you thoughts....could this be it...

Does it vary with speed or RPM? If RPM then I would check the pump, also its about time for a fluid flush if it has grit in it. Also another reason it could be the power steering pump.

To add to your problems ATF is the wrong fliud for your year. '01's still used the clear power steering fluid. Sounds like it needed flushed anyways. The recommended way told to me by the dealer was to drain the fliud by disconnecting the low pressure retun from the resivior and idleing till the fluid is out. Then refilling with mineral spirits. Run the car for a bit, drain that, refill with the proper fluid. Run, drain and refill. But I would double check with your local dealer, as this was prolly 10 years ago. It worked well on my Omni tho, and things haven't chanced much as far as power steering systems.

atf is the wrong fluid....oopsy....

I think today i am going to try removing the belts to try to narrow down the problem. I am so hoping its the pump, because i have one sitting here and its not a hard swap.

also it does get more noticable when accelerating and quiets down as soon as you get off the gas, it does sound like its coming from that side of the motor, with two of us looking we still couldnt pin it down, so i will remove that belt and run the car and see if its still doing it and if it is, i will try the other belt and see if the alternator is doing it...even though i dont think its that. I just hope its not the timing belt tensioner...its got about 50,000kms(approx 30,000miles) on it, its the newer style tensioner and the water pump was just done in november.

well....after pulling off the ps/ac belt the noise was still there and sounded like it was coming from the water pump area....luckily.....it stopped when i pulled the alternator belt off......and started whinning again when i put it back on....so..its my alternator.....its weird when it doesnt sound like its coming from that....i had noticed a couple weeks ago that my volt gauge seemed a bit lower then normal....so i was a little suspicious....so...i guess i am getting a new alternator tommorow...please tell me its not a hard install....didn't look too too bad to do.

The hardest part isn't the actual bolting up, its maneuvering the damn thing between the firewall and the motor. Its been a while but I know it took me a good 15 minutes just figuring out how it needs to be maneuvered.

hey...i know this may sound dumb...but i am out to lunch on this.......could a crankshaft bearing be causing this whinning sound?........it stopped when i took the belt off of the alternator, so I assumed it was the alternator....but then it was brought to my attention that the crankshaft bearing could be doing it????????????????

i did grab a new alternator, was going to upgrade to the pt alternator, but they didnt have any 100amp in stock and they didnt list the 120 amp either...this was at a canadian NAPA. So instead I got this 110amp alternator that was listed for 2000-01 neons...it was only a little more expensive then the 85amp alternator.

I still think my alternator is the problem, my autometer volt gauge used to show my battery around 14.5V now it rarely reads over 14V and if i put on my headlights, fogs, interior lights, fan and defroster on it goes down to a little below 12V and if i play with my sunroof everything dims......btw...amp wasnt on so that wasnt doing it. So this seems like its still an issue, and my car has 195,000kms and is 7.5 yrs old......so....not suprised by this either....what do you guys think?!?!?

btw ..new alternator goes in tommorow

new alternator is in...and it was the problem.....sounds nasty when you spin it by hand, got the new one in.....kinda fun getting them out....but i have done worse things then that.

thanx for all of the replies