PBLexusES

Hello. I own a 1999 ES 300 w/100,000 miles. As I was driving the car yesterday a sort of squealing/grinding sound started coming from the engine. It came and went intermittently.

So, this morning, I opened the hood and just revved the engine up to see if I could reproduce the sound. After a minute or so, it happened again. This time, the sound was very loud and didn't go away (it continued during idling).

I looked around the engine compartment and tried to pinpoint the source of the sound. I couldn't quite tell exactly where it was coming from, but the source seems to be the lower big wheel on the passenger side of the engine towards the bottom center of the engine (it has two belts connected to it). I'm not a car guy, but I've pretty much concluded that the noise is a bad bearing for one of those wheels that turn the belts. And it looks to be the big wheel/pulley that is in the center of the engine (flywheel/crankshaft?).

So, anyways, before I go to a mechanic (I don't trust those guys entirely), what am I looking at here? Is this an easy fix, or is it one of those things that involves disassembling the whole engine? I just want to have a general idea of what is involved before I take the car into the shop.

Any advice on this would be very much appreciated. Also, a ballpark cost estimate of what fixing something like this should be would be great too, if anyone has an idea.

Thank you!

GS4.0

Are you sure it's not the belt? They probably need to be replaced

PBLexusES

No. It definitely sounds like a bearing gone bad. It's a sort of grinding and squealing sound.

Jackal

If is a bearing gone bad. It will be a knocking sound that gets faster if u rev it.