Hello Everyone,

I'm new to these boards but familiar on how they work.

I have a '97 850 Wagon that I bought off Craigslist and have been slowly fixing up. So far I've had to replace all 4 tires and fix a antifreeze leak. Normal tune up items are slowly being aquired only waiting to find a decent place/price for a set of spark plug wires. I filled up the powersteering pump since it was apparently way low, and awaiting a decent day to do a oil change.

My problem right now is that when I turn the key to aux there comes this rather loud both in cabin and louder outside humming noise. At first I thought it was the alt. but alas its on the other side of the car. The noise seems to stem from beneath the battery.

Any help would be a big help.

 

Does your car have an air pump? It would be under the battery tray.
Or maybe it is the idle motor under the black cover by the throttle body.

 

Unsure on a Airpump. It is a Base Model 850 Wagon and a A/T to. The noise continues also when the car is on but is drowned out by the motor noise.

 

If it was the air pump it should only run for about 1 minute then turn off.
Maybe it is the idle motor.

Oh one more thought if it has headlight wipers move the wiper arm and see if the noise changes if so then the headlight wiper motor is bad. You can unplug it. The plug is like an orange color.

 

Whoohoo..
It was the wiperblade motor. The blade itself is shot beyond belief and one of the many things that need to be fixed but I allowed the arm to move and as soon as I brought it back down the noise stopped.

Now to find a listing of what type of bulbs go where since the Haynes book I bought has no mention of it. Bah