Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance Worrying Engine Whine / Grind

Hi Everyone,

Bought my Celica T Sport a couple of months ago and loving it.

I have a little issue with the engine (2ZZ-GE). When starting up from cold, after about 20-30 seconds it starts making a whining / grinding sound at idle. Once the engine has warmed up a bit, however, the noise goes away. Engine performance is not affected, hits lift just fine. No lights on the dashboard. I noticed that the coolant level is a bit below the 'low' marker, not sure if that could be an issue. Oil level is fine.

Link to a video showing the noise it is making here (cut to 30secs after car has been started up): https://youtu.be/mzrsAyGpoFY

Thanks!

Sounds like one of the pulleys is sticky when cold and may need a little lubrication. When the engine warms up it's sounds OK.

Spray WD-40 into the shaft of each pulley, one at a time, and find which one is whining, then give it more lubrication.

TL;DR: Issue was water pump, replaced it and is all fine.

Thanks for the advice, and apologies for the slow response. Here was the situation and my solution, if it helps anyone.

I had tried the WD-40 method, but to no avail. Same whining noise.

Over the course of the next few months, the whining noise got progressively worse and worse, to the point where it was happening all the time (albeit between 500 - 2000 RPM). Here is a video where you can really hear the noise: https://youtu.be/1x2xPaJ7B90

This allowed me to get a long screwdriver and pinpoint, with relative precision, where the noise was coming from. I was sure that it was coming from one of the pulleys, specifically the water pump. I had also noticed that the coolant had been slowly leaking, this gave me some more evidence that it was this.

Took a small gamble (£25 part) and replaced the water pump. The noise is now completely gone!

Hope this helps anyone who has the same issue.