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Whistling sound


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Hello, I don't have a Silverado but I do have a 2003 Avalanche with a 5.3L so hopefully you guys can help. There is a whistling sound that happens sporadically when I accelerate. I tried listening under the hood at idle and cannot hear it. It sounds like it is coming from the passenger's side around the air intake. It is louder and does it more often when the truck is cold. It is in sync with the gas pedal so I feel I can rule out a windshield seal but it almost sounds as if a window is cracked open (all windows are closed and make a tight seal). I replaced the water pump since that was leaking and it didn't cure the problem. I inspected the belt at the time and that looks fine, plus this doesn't sound like belt squeal. It does kind of sound like alternator whine. My gauge in dash shows it's charging at over 14. It does tend to fluctuate a little at idle. The truck has been a little slow to crank over in this bitter cold. I'm thinking either alternator or something in the throttle body or air intake. The air filter has been replace and the air box and snorkel appear snug. I'm not thinking it's anything serious but the whistle is annoying. I also thought about the transmission but it is not a transmission whine type of noise. It sounds more like air or vacuum. Not sure how or what to check.

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I had someone else ride in the truck and it didn't do it. In some ways, it does sound like alternator whine. It's possible it could be coming through my speaker. It is an aftermarket radio and there is static in the speaker. The alternator seems to charge over 15 volts per the in dash gauge. When the weather breaks, I'll trying checking with a DMM.

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It's 50 degrees today. The noise is completely gone. It was -20 last week and the noise was as loud as it had ever been. It seems to only happen when the actual temperature is cold and not necessarily when the engine is cold. I noticed my alternator is charging at a normal 14 volts per the gauge. When it was real cold, it was near 17 volts even when the car was at normal operating temp. I'm thinking it is now something in the alternator or battery. The battery has a date of January 2018. I bought the truck in March of 2018 so the battery was just put in before I bought it. There is no label on the battery so I can't tell what size it is. 

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I will also add that it cranks over slow sometimes. Not just in bitter cold, but if it sits a couple days. At idle, the alternator is charging at 13.8 volts per my multimeter. The alternator looks easy to replace but I don't want to just lay out $200. 

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How many miles on your truck?  My alternator went out at 150K.  I wasn't going to pay the high price of a new one so i took mine off and had it rebuilt for $70.  Only took them a day.  So I was out for three.  Day one to take it off and drop it off, a day for them to rebuild it and the next day to pick it up and put on.. 

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Now that you asked about the mileage, this brought up a whole other issue I just thought of. When I bought this truck, the Carfax came back as the truck having originally been sold in Canada. It has the DRL that cannot be shut off and the French manual. However, the gauges are not in metric. This never dawned on me when I bought it, but I believe the instrument cluster has been replaced. The last recorded odometer reading in Canada was 3 years before I purchased it at 223,000 or 138,000. I bought the truck with 172,000 miles. 34,000 miles in 3 years seems reasonable. Now I'm not sure how many miles it actually has but that is another issue. 

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I noticed the same sound coming from my 02 Silverado 1500 HD . I though it might be the cai i put on it making noise . it sound like a bad windshield sealing problem but couldn't find any cold air leaking inside my cab as I was driving along. The temp that day was around 10*f and haven't noticed that sound since that day ? All systems are a go with no engine lights or warning lights on with 180.000 on the truck. But I do have a exhaust bolt broken on the very back passengers side manifold that leaks a bit on cold start up then goes away that maybe my causes for the sound I heard ?? . but I'll be changing all my exhaust bolts in the near future . 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Figured I would update this. When checking a miss and lean code I was having, I noticed my intake gasket was leaking. That was not the cause of the miss but I replaced the intake gasket and have yet to hear the whistling again. 

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