Hey guys,

So I have this problem and it's really hard to explain so I have a small video I made to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHkJYma7nkU

It's a 99 civic Si SOHC with about 220/khms. Timing belt was last changed at 120/khms

So not sure how good you can hear the noise in the video but it's source sounds like it's coming from alternator (brand new just recently), or one of the belts. It sounds almost like when you back up your car in reverse.. that whine noise it makes. It seems to be consistent with RPM's in neutral or in gear. If I rev higher, the sound seems to whine higher as well.

This whine noise started out as a small whine and progressively grew a bit louder... until I all of a sudden had NO POWER in the car.. almost like it was running on 3 cylinders. I hardly made it up the hill to get the car home.

The check engine light is not on, so no help from computer..

I have no idea what this could be but I have a friend who can help me fix it if we know what it is, so I'd like to hear some thoughts from you guys.

Any ideas?

thanks
Kirk

 

Check the cam timing, timing belt may have skipped. The noise could be a bad water pump or timing belt tensioner, or one of the external belt-driven accessories. To test that, remove the external belts and start the engine see if the noise is still there. But check the timing first.

Could also be a bad alternator, eventually the engine will slow down and stall due to lack of electricity as the battery runs out. But almost everything else electric on the car will stop working first.