Name that part!

Good evening,

I have a 1998 Saturn SC1. Recently it has began to make a whining noise which increases with acceleration. I have tracked this to a specific part, but am not familiar with cars.

I have an image of a Saturn engine (different year, but similar to mine) with an arrow to the suspect part. Can anyone tell me what this is? Any hypotheses about the whining noise?

The image is at http://thecrunch.net/blogger/engine.jpg

Thanks in advance!

thats the A/C compressior, whining is a common sign of the alternator starting to die. the alternator is mounted below the intake manifold. one trick to locate a noise is to take a tube (the cardboard tube of a roll of wraping paper works good) and use it to find the source of the nosie.

Check your PowerSteering Pump TOO!! It's the one right at the windsheild side on the passenger side.

Check your PowerSteering Pump TOO!! It's the one right at the windsheild side on the passenger side.

this is almost definately your problem. mine has the same problem, i have to get a new pump. $80 for the part, $40 to put it in or you can do it yourself.