2010 F150 on & off whining noise around the engine.

Asked by Montuckey Apr 15, 2020 at 07:58 PM about the 2010 Ford F-150 FX4 SuperCrew 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Listening to the whining noise on my sisters truck. Sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it was whining so I took a long breaker bar for a stethoscope. Listened to the Alt. idlers, steering pump. Sounded the loudest at the alt. Then all of the sudden I heard a click, and it stopped whining! So I had her turn on the air conditioning. I thought maybe the compressor cycled. Nope! No whine. Would the internal regulator in the Alt. cause a load on the Alt. to make it whine/ click intermittently? Wierd!

5 Answers

74,490

The internal regulator is electronic, it would not whine. A bearing would cause it to whine in the alternator. I usually associate a whine as coming from the power steering pump. Try this. Start the vehicle and slowly turn the wheel from left to right. See if the while comes and goes.

1 people found this helpful.

Thanks for the answers! I'm pretty sure it's not the steering pump. But I will try testing it. The thing that Stumped me was while it was whining/humming, I definitely heard a CLICK, and it instantly stopped making the noise! I've never ran into to this weird one. I'm an Old hot rodder.

Thanks Ed! - Will do. Good to have knowledgeable people out there to help each other out!

Well, the whining had continued on & off. Yesterday the battery was too low to start her truck. So.... After jump starting it, I check the battery voltage with it running. 14.54 V. Unhooked the battery & did a load test on it. It went fairly low, but passed. So I took an estimated guess & replaced the alternator with a re-manufactured one. (Expensive) Following all the normal guidelines. Unhooked battery terminals, cleaned them, Battery is up. Well now.... I start it up, everything looks good. I check the battery voltage at an idle. & it's 13.48 V. And I'm going, well that's lower than I would suspect, but it should be ok. Then I get in the pickup and the battery symbol & chime is going off. What the Cuss! So I go to town & we put a brand new battery in it. No change. Still around 13.40 volts. SO my question now is the computer looking for 14+ volts?? Is that why the warning is going off now. I told the parts store & they are getting me another reman, like I just put on it. Well see if it charges more. Curious about why the warning & chime is going off now. Geezz! Thanks.

Hi. For everyone's information, I changed the alternator with a re-man. & changed the pig tail connector to the alt. Something worse happened. Since the alt. is controlled by the PCM, something happened and the PCM went into limp mode. Charging a steady 13.4V, Dash alarm going off. I had did everything right when changing the alt. Battery charged & disconnected. cleaned all the terminals, etc. I ended up taking the pickup to Ford. We put a new battery in it. It was showing an open circuit on their scanner. Then it mysteriously came back. It was looking like I might have to buy a new PCM. They said to put the old alternator back on and see what happens. So I did. & thankfully it came back to normal. Geeezz. And by the way..... The on & off whining turned out to be the water pump! Thanks for you help.

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