98 Altima whine question (and wreck story)

I am on my third Altima now. Had a 98, replaced by a 99 courtesy of some drunk hitting my wife (in which our Altima, at a stoplight, took a direct hit in the driver door at 55+ mph, took it like a champ...my wife was released from the hospital within a couple hours with minor cuts and bruises...hence why my last three cars now were all Altimas...go with what works, right:) and now my work car is a 98 Altima again. Now on both of my previous Altimas I never noticed the whine I'm hearing from my current 98. It almost sounds like the bad power steering whine but it goes up with the rpms, not when I turn the wheel. I'm at a loss and my mechanical knowledge is limited to part changing, troubleshooting is not in there. Any ideas?

Probably is the P/S pump . If you have a long screwdriver start listning to pulleys, alternator , watepump ps pump ect. See where its the loudest , If you cant figure it out take the a/c belt off and see if it changes . Just have to narrow it down . Ive seen many 98-99 alts with a whiny engine , Usually center idler pulley,P/S pump or alternator .

I'll check it out and see if I can figure out which pulley/part its coming from. I had pretty much ruled out the p/s pump just because in all my previous cars with bad p/s pumps it got worse as the steering wheel turned, not as the rpms...but like I said, my troubleshooting is not my strong suit. Thanks for the help.

Listen to the middle Idler pulley well . Its right below to the left of the upper engine mount .

I am hearing the same whining noise that gets louder with rpm on my 2009 altima. When the engine is in park, the noise doesn't occur when you Rev the engine. It also gets louder going downhill even with no power..almost like in low gear but engine speed is normal.