Engine bay whine

[Catfish]

I have a sport trac 02 196000. Started hearing a whining from the engine bay. Doesn't change moving steering wheel. Whines while parked as well only when you accelerate. Gets louder uphill. 4.0v6. please help

 

[curtis james]

could be pulley tensioner, i had one going out and made higher pitched whining sound. was around 50 bucks few years back.

 

[Catfish]

Tensioner seemed grindy with the chassis ear. Same with idler. And a little wiggle moving by hand.

 

[curtis james]

ya could try and spray some wd40 or hell even water just to see if it makes a difference in noise to try and isolate it, there is quite a few guys on here that really know these motors, swshawaii and toddz, they are usually spot on with advise. good luck.

 

[Catfish]

Thank you. Tried pb blaster no change.

 

[swshawaii]

Remove the belt and turn ALL the pulleys by hand to check for binding. If all pulleys are spinning smoothly, start the COLD engine and listen under the hood. If still "whining" you've likely isolated the sound to internal engine noise. Avoid running the cold engine without the belt for more than two minutes because it drives the water pump and will overheat quickly.

While you have the belt off use a nylon scrub brush and dish soap to clean the belt. Surprising what comes out of the grooves when you rinse it. If you're up to it clean all the pulleys too.

 

[Catfish]

Thank you. Will try that tomorrow

 

[DILLARD000]

I have a sport trac 02 196000. Started hearing a whining from the engine bay. Doesn't change moving steering wheel. Whines while parked as well only when you accelerate. Gets louder uphill. 4.0v6. please help

Have you made any recent changes\mods, like to the AirFilter or AirFilterBox?
If above mentioned possible causes+solutions don't pan out,
another possibility is the IACValve, mounted on top of IntakeManifold throat, behind ThrottleBody.
These can develop a high pitched whine that gets louder as RPMs increase.
Remove the IACV. Inspect Figure8 ORing; it can dry out & crack;
replace with new ORing or a homemade cardstock gasket or at least a little PetroleumJelly on the old one.
Clean IACV with CarbThrottleSpray & soft Brass\Tooth\GunBarrel Brush, then lightly oil the Valve stem+seals.
As a last resort, replace the IACV with new.
Click here for more info on IACValve for the 2001~2005=Gen1 ExST V6~4.0L~SOHC engine.

 

[DILLARD000]

Yet another possibility is the FanClutch;
if worn out it may be keeping Fan engaged all the time, making more "wind" noise than it should.
If FanClutch is original at 196kMiles, it needs to be replaced.