Whining Over Radio -- Bad Alternator? (96 Saturn SC2)

Hello, I have a 96 SC2 with 112K miles. Just the other day, a whining noise started via the radio's speakers that changes pitch with engine RPM changes. Could this be anything other than the voltage regulator (i.e. can I fix this any other way than buying a new alternator?). The battery is 3 mos old, and the alternator was replaced at 40K miles, so it has about 70K and 6 years on it. Thanks much in advance for any suggestions.

Try checking and cleaning the battery-to-frame ground strap and the alternator-to-frame and alternator-to-battery connections.

Normally I'd suspect the battery going bad but it's only 3 months old.

Tim.

You could put a noise suppression filter from Radio Shack on the leads to the radio but that would be masking the problem which may be a defective alternator diode. As mentioned, you could also have a bad ground somewhere. A voltage difference of just 0.5 volts in some poor ground connection can show up in the radio as a lot of noise.

Fwiw, I just put a Radio Shack noise suppressor (the $15-20 larger one with the three wires (blue, red, black) on a motorcycle to suppress the alternator whine in the communicator/mixer and mp3 player. Oddly, it worked.

B~

Thanks

The infamous 'death whine' of a Saturn alternator going bad.

Ken (MI)

Whining on the radio? What - "MisterFact" now buying broadcasting spots on FM for his crap? ;)