Hi peeps,

I drive a 09 GS 300 with 3GR-FSE engine. I am in Europe, but I believe we share the same engines.

Anyways, today, a mega weird cracking sound appeared from the engine. When facing the engine, it comes from the left of it. Also, on the right of the engine, one can hear a slight whirring sound.

They are both to hear on the YouTube video.

Car is facelift, with 184 000 km, so about 114 000 miles.

It has been properly maintained. The current oil is Liqui Molly 5W30, not even 1500 miles old. I have never had oil burning issues. The car has never been crashed either.

I have to say this comes after I decided to clean my windshield drainage system. I was then testing it with hose on the windshield and saw that some of it leaks at the back of the engine compartment. I still let it dry for some 6-7 hours before starting it again.

If it's the known injector / fuel pump thing, does it get worse with the time? It's pretty bad now, and didn't go away with the engine warming up.

Is there a way to determine if that's the reason at all?

I would be helpful of any tips. Please pay attention to the video on YouTube, one can hear the whirring sound there too, it's like a "siren" as I call it. Never heard it before.




Thank you and much love.

 

Thats the high pressure fuel pump sound, and its totally normal sound. As for the sound in the front, that may sound like a water pump going bad, have you ever replaced your water pump? If not these cars are known to destroy water pumps at around 90k miles. An easy way to check is to feel behind the water pump pulley, if the pump is leaking the whole back side of the pulley should be covered in pink slime or crust. You can also grab the pulley with your hand and shake it to see if theres any loose play.

You can buy an aisan brand pump there under $100 and take less then 3 hours easy labour. I would also do serpentine belts, thermostat, coolant, idler pulley. Even if the pump isnt bad, I would still replace! Because when they do go bad, if seen members destroy their engines from overheating.

 

Thank you!

I just never heard that sound before, or it reached it's peak point. What are the chances the timing chain has gone bad? From what I know, there are some kind of sensors, I must get some kind of a warning first. Will do a OBD read once I am back home. I am 70 miles away, I hope that's not too bad for the water pump. Will watch the temperature gauge.

As for the sound, I have recorded a few new clips starting with a cold engine. The clicks go hand-in-hand with the RPM. Does that fit the high pressure fuel pump performance? Also, could a injector / engine cleaner fuel-add on help ease a bit the sound, or rather not?

And last but not least, I have read some tips of getting that Sub-assey covers, and that it might help reduce the sound - https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/1260638010

I might go for these, as installation seems easy. I hope my mechanic won't be too unhappy about it.

Thank you so much!

 

I've done the cover over the high pressure fuel pump -- you need one each of 12605-38010 and 12606-38010. They snap together over the pump, there isn't a bolt or other retainer that needs to be removed or fastened (aside from the engine cover). Because the fuel delivery pipes are shaped differently on the GS, there is some need to finagle / finesse the covers into place, and some have had to make small modifications to the cover(s) to make it work. Personally, I didn't find a significant benefit, but I did feel a little better. This is maybe a 15 minute job if you really want to look over the area, but getting the covers in place and snapping them together is really just a minute or two.

Clicks going hand-in-hand with the RPM is normal, the high-pressure fuel pump is directly driven off the end of the cam on the passenger's side.

As far as the squeak sound, I would suspect the alternator / alternator decoupler pulley, the serpentine belt tensioner pulley, possibly the idler, or the water pump. But given location, I'd start with the alternator. You can test the decoupler function of the pulley by parking the car, and revving up to about 2000 RPM then pushing the engine start/stop button. If you hear any squeaking, that would be a sign of a failed decoupler pulley. I'm not sure that it can be removed from the alternator without removing the alternator itself, so you'd probably do best to just replace the whole alternator assembly. If you are handy, you can remove the serpentine belt and spin each of the pulleys to see if you get any noise, and you can check the function of the tensioner for any sticking, play, or looseness.