Squealing, Whining, Steering, Engine?

[nirvana19]

My car hasn't been doing great in the cold lately (<40 degree fahrenheit). Following a cold start, one of the belts (i think) starts to squeal. It isn't audible over the engine at idle, and gets louder as the rpms increase (by 2000 rpm VERY loud). It usually stops happening completely after a few minutes, but on occasions persisted throughout the whole of my drive (on and off squealing). The belts all seem fine, my guess is one of the pulleys or bearings is shot, but how do you tell which one? Could is be the water pump?

A separate issue, my power steering system sounds like its exploding when the engine is cold. Trying to get out of a parallel parking spot, the steering just squeals horribly as if the box is about to explode, but feels as if the belt is slipping (the steering wheel actually seems to "slip"). When the car is warm (this doesn't seem to vary on ambient temperature) this all stops and the steering works perfectly normally. Again, engine cold=problem ALWAYS occurs, engine warm=problem NEVER occurs, its very consistent. Am I looking at a power steering box replacement, or are all my belts or something else just somehow screwy?

We're finally getting some nice weather so I want to get my car in better running shape and get a lot of maintenance in. Its certainly drivable now, but it would be oh so nice to have a few less squeals and whines! thanks for any advice

[Ferret]

I'd certainly be eyeing up your belts and tensioners on this one mate - is there any coolant mess over the back of the visco coupling on the rad fan? Your coolant would be leaking I think if the pump bearings were shot.

[bsell]

I'd certainly be eyeing up your belts and tensioners on this one mate - is there any coolant mess over the back of the visco coupling on the rad fan? Your coolant would be leaking I think if the pump bearings were shot.

+1 on the above.

When's the last time you changed the PS fluid? Mine talks a bit when cold outside but it's not too bad and I have been too busy to swap in some fresh fluid. I figure from the color of the fluid, I have all kinds mixed in there and I want to put in some fresh Dexron and see what happens as I have seen more noisy PS systems cured of thier noises by swapping out the fluid. Even when it looked good to begin with...

Brian

[525i winter driver]

I have pretty much the same problems - +2 to above. p/s reservoir leak causes the whining... mine's very minor but if i top it off too much it goes all over the place. In my case I think the bearing in the alternator is full of crud because my belt is good and tight but that's a guess. it's only when it's really cold and i have a big power draw going (radio, rear defrost) that it struggles - maybe ice in the crud. err, anything you can do about sending some of that nice weather up here?

[nirvana19]

When I got my car, the power steering fluid was low (meaning its leaking since its a closed system i'm presuming). I checked the level, and I may have topped it up a bit too much since the level is SLIGHTLY over the max mark. Would this cause the squealing? Theres a mess of something on the hoses and area under the reservoir, but I've never really noted a fluid leak and the level stays constant for months. I'm going to change the fluid tomorrow and maybe also get to the coolant flush/water pump replacement. Still looking into the other squealing...

winter driver, not sure if theres much I can do about the weather up in your parts, pray to the weather gods perhaps? or just to the bmw gods to make all e34s happy in ALL weather.

Interesting video here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o9NbrW1MuT8

[525i winter driver]

When I got my car, the power steering fluid was low (meaning its leaking since its a closed system i'm presuming). I checked the level, and I may have topped it up a bit too much since the level is SLIGHTLY over the max mark. Would this cause the squealing? Theres a mess of something on the hoses and area under the reservoir, but I've never really noted a fluid leak and the level stays constant for months. I'm going to change the fluid tomorrow and maybe also get to the coolant flush/water pump replacement. Still looking into the other squealing...

winter driver, not sure if theres much I can do about the weather up in your parts, pray to the weather gods perhaps? or just to the bmw gods to make all e34s happy in ALL weather.

Interesting video here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o9NbrW1MuT8my p/s leak is really slow too - that mess on the hoses i bet is the same as my mess of p/s fluid - would only cause the squealing i think if it managed to get all the way to your alternator and gum it all up. just to be anally clear - whining=p/s , squealing=alternator but i think you got that.

thanks for the video. imo the winter testing looks pretty weak. [warning major sarcasm] oh wow- a brand new car can handle one -40' overnight low and start the next day and then drive around on a plowed road in 2 inches of fresh powder. ooh wow- my sister's moped can do that.

snow and cold are nothing to any car with gas in it and decent tires. ice is the winter killer- they should let me test their cars!

[nirvana19]

Drained the PS today and replaced with synthetic ATF. The steering box seems fine (no whine) so i THINK I won't need to replace it.

The belt still squeals, maybe the bearing on the power steering pump is gone? Its really puzzling me, i double checked all the belt tensions and checked for cracking or glazing (the belts aren't a few months old and the problem started well after they were installed). Might I need a new PS pump? Any suggestions as to how to pinpoint this? I don't even know what I have to actually replace is the bearings are gone...

[nirvana19]

thanks for the video. imo the winter testing looks pretty weak. [warning major sarcasm] oh wow- a brand new car can handle one -40' overnight low and start the next day and then drive around on a plowed road in 2 inches of fresh powder. ooh wow- my sister's moped can do that.

snow and cold are nothing to any car with gas in it and decent tires. ice is the winter killer- they should let me test their cars!

Oh, I know. Its not really that impressive, but I love the 8-series and find it entertaining to watch. And I mean, who ACTUALLY takes an 8-series out to a desert or through a -40 degree blizzard (waiting for someone to chime in here...)

[525i winter driver]

Drained the PS today and replaced with synthetic ATF. The steering box seems fine (no whine) so i THINK I won't need to replace it.

The belt still squeals, maybe the bearing on the power steering pump is gone? Its really puzzling me, i double checked all the belt tensions and checked for cracking or glazing (the belts aren't a few months old and the problem started well after they were installed). Might I need a new PS pump? Any suggestions as to how to pinpoint this? I don't even know what I have to actually replace is the bearings are gone...

i got some good suggestions on this thread http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36862&highlight=alt

this is on my really long list of things to do when the weather's better - i'm hoping to take apart the alternator and try to find a way to replace the bearing or at the very least give it a proper grease-up. i'll be posting pics and begging for help as usual most probably unless you do it and write it up;) - i bet there's old cruddy p/s fluid all over the place.