Hey guys,

2002 Caravan 3.3L with 240,000km on the odometer.

Whirling/Griding noise from the engine started up a few days ago. Coming from the passenger side as far as I can tell. Thinking it may be a bearing issue on one of the belt driven accessories. Whirling speeds up with higher rpm up to a certain point. Couldn't hear it while driving on the highway.

Turning A/C on or off doesn't have any effect.
Coolant temp is steady.
Doesn't appear to have any effect on driving, yet.

Here is a video of the sound I recorded today

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

 

Kinda hard to tell from the vid. Perhaps an issue w/ alternator bearing/tensioner bearing.

 

I had a harmonic balancer go bad on me. It eventually took out the AC clutch bearing and the bore it sits in. It must be common because my local Advance Auto parts had it on the shelf.
Take the passenger tire off and remove the plastic cover that shields the belts and look and listen again?
If nothing is obvious there it may be internals sending you a message.

 

Yeah sounds like the logical next step. I'll get the stethoscope out later today and see if I can pinpoint the noise.

 

OK, so after taking a closer look and removing the plastic panel, it turns out it's the bearings on the water pump making all that noise.

What brand would be best to go with for a new water pump?

 

Just make sure you don't get a plastic impeller. Here is a pic on the one that let go in my van.

Also there are lots of Utube vids on how to change it. Its kind of tricky and a pain to get at the 10mm bolt heads. And pray they are not seized in.
I used a few different tools on this one being a Chapman tool set with the little miniature ratchet adapting a 1/4" drive socket and a regular 10mm ratcheting wrench.

I supported the motor with a floor jack and loosened the motor mount bolts on the passenger side and let the motor down a bit.

Once you have it free you will need to pry the motor some to get it to drop out and be warned about prying on the crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer.
If you disturb the balancer dampener and it wobbles it will take out your AC compressor clutch. Pry on something else. The balancer pulley is very close to the AC compressor and the wobbling belt will give it hell.

 

Thanks for the heads up 2therock.
Did you tighten the bolts on the replaced water pump using a torque wrench or just go by feel? As it seems like it will be near impossible to reach some of them, especially one of the bolts towards the back.

 

No torque wrench, just common sense. Its not a head gasket. Its a collapsible rubber ring. You will feel it compressing and when it stops give it a flat or less more.
This pump was a 2nd one for my van installed by a Goodyear shop for the previous owner. I got her @ 76+k miles.
I found they had issues with one of the bottom bolts and got lucky it was a bottom bolt and was able to drill it through and put a nut on it.
My guess they stripped it out and did the dirty.

Take your time and get good wrench mounting on the bolts and pull with care.
I removed the metal lower coolant tube for more room and it went back with the same o-ring with no leaks. Its cheap enough, so you may want to get one and not gamble.

And yes, I pried the engine around using the balancer and had to put a new one on after replacing the AC clutch bearing. Ugh!

 

I assume the water pump is run by the timing belt? I'm just curious how it's setup.

 

The serpentine belt yes. There is a pulley on it that comes off 1st. Google search 2002 grand caravan water pump change or something like that and select videos. You will find videos on it that gives all the details.