Strange whining sound coming from the drivers side engine area...need help
 

So all of a sudden a few weeks back my '03 X-5 4.4i starts giving me this really weird sounding engine whine (for lack of a better word) during acceleration. Once you get it up to speed and back off the throttle, the whining pretty much goes away but if I blip the throttle I can hear it.

It kind of sounds like one of those tractor pull engines winding up but not loud per se. I'm thinking it's an air leak of some kind coming from either then engine or the exhaust system.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

is it rather a wistle? if it's a wistle and you hear it only on low rpm accelerations (1800-2200), it is a crack in the air intake manifold or intake boot... I have this sound, i like it, i am not doing anything about it... :)

This intake boot I think is on the 3.0i only, which is very common, the 4.4i I don't think has this same intake boot...?

I don't know that I've seen it on a 4.4i before, but the 4.6is torque converter can go out at in such a manner to cause a supercharger-like whine under acceleration. If this fits the symptoms you might want to get it looked at really soon before it causes consequential damage in the transmission.

That is what it sounds like. What should I ask my tech to look for?

He can't look for much if its the torque converter as it sits inside the transmission. The torque converter on our E46 3 series was making a similar noise and it turned out to be an expensive exercise. Hope and pray that it isn't the torque converter

You might be lucky and just need to change the transmission fluid.

The other possibility is the alternator or a pulley of some sort. If it makes the same noise when you rev the car in neutral then its not the transmission and more likely one of the above.

:iagree:

I had this same sound on my '05 3.0 6spd manual, it drove me nuts when windows were down. I had some stuff done to the truck and the sound is gone, but I'm not sure what fixed it. They did front CVs, fixed a power steering leak, and changed all belts. Not sure if this will help but I had told my mechanic about it and when I picked it up the sound was gone and I forgot to ask what was causing it.

It's not the tranny as the sound is the same regardless of whether it's in N or Drive. I guess that's a good thing.

It sounds like the noise is coming from drivers side engine compartment. I'm leaning towards a belt as it's related to engine RPM. The sound is the same whether the windows are down or not.

Dont count your chickens yet!! Unless I'm mistaken there are still parts of the tranny that spin over when in N. Somebody correct me if i am wrong.