Hello My Q brothers,

All of a sudden I'm hearing a weird high pitched sort of grinding type noise while the engine is running. At first I thought it was a brake problem but I continue to hear the noise even when I'm not moving. I've checked the power steering pump, altenator and a/c pumps and I don't think its coming from any of those devices. It almost sounds like its coming from inside the engine. If any of you guys have any ideas please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Recently had a bearing go in my power steering pump. It was difficult to isolate where the noise was coming from, so I removed the belts and fired up the engine and the noise disappeared. From that point on it was just a matter of narrowing it down to the offending component.

Rod

It might also be one of the bearings on the belt pullies... especially given your description of the noise. You might try pulling the belts, and spin the pullies to check for roughness. If you don't mind getting stuff greasy, you can always try the old spray-WD40-at-stuff-while-it's-running-and-see-when-it-stops-method, but I wouldn't recommend it. My dad has a sthescope with a long metal rod on the end that is great for isolating noises... it' helped me with a lot of things...

The pully bearings are common failure items on Qs with 100K+ miles. They'll eventually lock up and cause the belt to break (or burn in two).

Heath