Disappointed that this 960 wagon I love so much may need to be retired. It has an immaculate interior (minus the steering wheel) and has been reliable (minus the 6 ignition coils that went bad one by one) . Its howling like crazy and I suspected it was a cam bearing or chain tensioner, but really have no idea what it is. I've been warned not to remove the cam cover, so i'm inclined to let her go now. Thought I'd check here first to see if maybe I can save her. I'm extremely mechanically inclined and have a lot of time on my hands. I do love this car.

Here's a video of the dreadful sound which gets louder right at the end of the video. I should have recorded a little longer...


I had one nice fellow comment on the video and he thinks its cam noise but that doesn't help me decide what I need to do at this point. Thanks.

Bret

 

Can you hear the video over the crickets in here? I have looked online and see that the cams ride directly on the head without bearings, so I take it this is not due to bearing wear. Any ideas?

Bueller... Bueller...

 

I hear valve tapping which is curable with an oil change. The "whine", could be a bearing, any bearing like water pump, alternator, etc. Have to test them individually to make sure--take off the accessory belt, run the engine, see what sounds disappear...

 

Thanks for the reply. It sure sounds like it's coming from under the cam cover, but I know vibrations can be deceiving. I might just have to break down and take this to a shop. I can't think of how to bypass one accessory at a time with a serpentine belt. Take care.

 

You can't isolate it like that. Run the car without the belt to see if the noise is in the accessories or in the motor. Use a stethoscope to listen to the bearings one by one.

 

Ok thanks, Lev. Right now I'm replacing the seals on the injectors to try and stop a gas leak. I broke one of the plastic o-ring retainers on an injector and am heading to the junk yard later today. They sell injectors for 6.99. Once I get the fuel system back together I'll try and track down the source of the noise. The serpentine belt is tensioned by some sort of automatic tensioner? Is it something I would simply remove in order to get the belt off? Thanks for your comments.