Whine on tickover

[original guvnor]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction with a noise that is beginning to bother me on my M.

My car has recently started to get louder at tickover. The noise is what I would call a whine or whirr. I have no fault lights illuminated on the dashboard, the car seems to be performing perfectly normally other than this, the noise seems to disappear (or is masked) when engine revs rise to normal driving speeds. The tone of the noise is the same regardless of whether or not I put my foot on the accelerator or not.

When I lifted the bonnet you can hear this noise and i suspect it might be one of the (what I assume are) timing belts at the front of the engine. Sorry but as you can probably guess I'm no mechanic.

Any ideas before I take it into the dealers to be looked at ?

:?

 

[lacroupade]

Could be a bearing on the alternator or somesuch thing, if indeed its anything to worry about?

An old-fashioned mechanic will get themselves a metal rod, stick one end to their ear and the other firmly against various parts of the engine until they hear the noise 'up close and personal', that can help to narrow it down.

But FFS don't get the end tangled in anything while the engines running will you!!!

 

[playalistic]

If I ever hear a whine, first thing I'll be doing is checking the passenger seat to see if the missus is sat there

 

[original guvnor]

If I ever hear a whine, first thing I'll be doing is checking the passenger seat to see if the missus is sat there

i can definitely rule that one out playalistic...i'm happily divorced!