Strange under hood sound
12-20-2011, 12:44 PM
#1
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Strange under hood sound
Over the past few months a new sound has started to occur at initial start up. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner is switching on and off (never happened before recently). I checked under the hood to make sure the radiator fans weren't coming on. It seems to be coming from the driver's side HID unit. If you blip the throttle the sound ceases but starts back after a few seconds. Once the car warms up this no longer occurs. It's starting to get aggravating. Has anyone else had a similar issue?
12-20-2011, 01:26 PM
#2
Do you have an 05 or below? Are you sure you aren't talking about the secondary air pump? It is located under the drivers side headlight under the bumper and creates a "whistle" sound on cold start up. It's there to pump fresh air into the catalytic converter on cold starts to reduce emissions.
12-20-2011, 01:41 PM
#4
The pump may be on it's way out. They are notorious for it. Any CEL? If you pull your front bumper and start the car while cold I'm almost certain that's the noise you are hearing. It may just have become more noticeable with age.
12-20-2011, 01:46 PM
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No CEL as of yet. Any idea how much those run? I'll have to check and see if fits the problem. I'm going to have it in the body shop over tax season (my busy season) to get it repainted(thanks hit and run driver for subsidizing getting the whole thing redone.
12-20-2011, 01:55 PM
#6
Well I have an extra pump sitting around. You can also get the Izze air pump delete and eliminate that system all together. In all honesty if it hasn't thrown a CEL I wouldn't bother with it. Mine whistles pretty loud on cold starts. It doesn't bother me though. Colder weather seems to make it run louder, but that's just my personal observation.
12-20-2011, 02:55 PM
#7
Definitely sounds like the secondary air injection pump. Like s2klariat said, I wouldn't worry about it now. The system is purely an emissions device and doesn't affect the performance of the engine. If it does fail, you can either buy a new pump or the air pump delete/simulator.
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