Ugh. I’ve got a noise. Still.

Not just spin, but jiggle them. Fondle those little bastards. If there's any play, scratchiness, motion, it's time to replace.

And don't forget: The fan/clutch is mounted to a round plate that contains a bearing also, and it's not uncommon for that bracket to develop noise. But if your clutch is working as expected, it may not be blatantly obvious, because a properly functioning fan clutch would produce enough resistance that the fan shouldn't be able to spin a full rotation on its own.

 

Does this noise seem to come and go with temperature differences? In other words cold starts vs. warm starts or time delays between off and start? Like did oil circulate recently or not or is something changing size based on temps?

 

Doing the timing belt I replaced:
Water pump
Timing idler
Timing tensioner pulley
Serp tensioner
Serp idler
Fan bracket

So those should all be good. Only thing that spin that aren’t new are:
Power steering pump
Alternator
AC compressor
Actual fan clutch

 

Not that I can tell. I’ll start making note of when it happens

 

I’m really hoping it is something to do with the fan. It’s sort of not too much of a pain to get to!

 

Not a pain to get to. But also, you have to tear down a LOT to replace that bracket. To the point I recommend anyone with 200k+ miles to replace it while doing the timing belt, with a new Aisin replacement. I have yet to see any easy solution to replace just the bearing/pulley.

 

Doesn't sound like it, but the intermittent nature and cold start only seems like it could be an SAI issue.

When it makes the noise if you leave it running does it go away?

 

Yep. I almost didn’t replace the fan bracket but after seeing how much I had to do to get it off I went ahead and ordered a new one!

 

I’ve only let it run with the noise happening a couple times. One was that video I posted on page 1. I shut it off after I took the video. The second time it did stop by itself in just a couple of seconds.

Next time it makes the noise I’ll let it run and see if it stops.