Hi, I have a 04 Accord EX 6 cyl, the outside temp has been in the teens last couple nights. Upon startup yesterday morning and this morning the car is making what appears to be a humming (more towards grinding) type noise. It gets higher or lower depending on the RPM's. In addition to this, after letting the car run for about 10 minutes, I felt like perhaps there was an idle issue so I turned the car off. When I tried to restart, the entire car was dead, no locks, no lights (inside or out) nothing. I got out of the car checked the battery connections, fine, then got back in the car and it started up normally with all power and the noise was at that point pretty much gone. Anyone have any idea what's going on?

 

Have you ever replaced the battery?

 

I'll take a wild guess, and say ignition switch.

 

Could the noise be the alternator which could have been running at its max trying to recharge the battery?

 

If it keeps making that noise, it would be good to pinpoint the location of the sound.

 

agreed

 

Good chance it IS the alternator, but if it's making too much noise it might be early signs of it's diode bridge going out. Or maybe alternator bearings in the early stages of failure.

 

Yes, battery is less than 2 years old, it's a 7 yr battery

 

The sound appears to be coming from the top left area near the top spool of the serpentine belt? Somewhere close to there, the belts seem tight so unsure...

 

The car only has 65k on it, the alternator could go out that fast? 5yrs seems short to me, but I don't know much about cars...so...