Hey I love this site. Just stumbled on it.

Here's the skinny
91 Civic DX sedan
1.5L SOHC
5 speed
157k miles
Timing belt changed but unknown when
Just bought car a month ago.

I am hearing a kind of gear whine at all speeds/idle/rpm. I goes up with rpm. It is definitll coming from lh side of motor. No overheat or leak. I suspect the water pump is failing but do these pumps have a weep hole on them to let you know when the bearing is going and since the pump is driven by the timing belt, will it cause major damage if if seizes up? Thanks in advance

 

i had similar type of noise and the tank for clutch fluid was hella low, i'd check that..

 

Thanks- I shoulda said but all fluids are good and it isn't power steering related at least when I turn the wheel it does not get worse. I did notice when I use the cig lighter the temp guage jumps up a 1/4 inch or so. Maybe the alternator is getting screwy?

 

Yes the water pumps do have weep holes and the the symptom you're stating is not a water pump noise. Water pump noise is the sound of marbles. Ceck timing belt, it may be loose becasue when timing belts are loose on a honda it will sound like a gear whine (I call it the super charger sound).

 

is this all when your moving or stopped?

 

I found out what my noise was. While driving to work this morning I heard a noise like I ran over a small child and his bike and when I looked out the rear view mirror I saw a small round thing bouncing down the freeway and thought "What an odd looking kid"- no really it looked just like a pulley. Well a mile from work- no lite from the alternator and power steering still works ( a bummer cuz I want a reason to ditch it) and car runs fine. Get to work, pop hood and the idler for the A/C belt is gone. THe belt hanging in the breeze and the noise is gone! I fixed it! ANd now I have a good excuse to remove all the A/C ****. Thanks for the help though.