2001 gs whining when accelrating and some times moans when it turns

[carno]

my 2001 buick regal gs makes a whining noise when I accelerate and it moans when I turn my wheels, I recently had the power steering fluid replaced and the power steering was fine apparently. The moaning doesn't happen all the time but the whining with acceleration does. I have heard this noise before with an alternator on a Saturn twin cam I had as a teen, so I suspect the alternator is there an easy way to diagnosis this problem. If I have to take the alternator out how do I do this? I also heard it could be a belt from someone online that this has happened to before if so is it easy to replace?

[BNaylor]

Welcome to AF.

Please post your mileage.

Alternator whine is common depending on your mileage and/or age of your Regal. Other sources of whining noise could be the tensioner pulley and/or any idler pulley in the serpentine drive belt system.

The moaning sound from the rack and pinion when turning can occur depending on your weather especially if very cold.

You could remove the serpentine drive belt and spin the alternator pulley by hand or with serpentine drive belt off, start the car up and see if the noise disappears or is minimized. Just make sure you have a full charge on the battery first and I would do the test stationary.

The alternator is easy to remove. Three bolts hold it to the main mounting bracket and there are two electrical connections. Plus one support bracket.

Also, the supercharger can make a whining sound if the snout bearings go bad. You can remove the supercharger drive belt and the car can be driven without the SC belt for a short while.