wawy

Today when I was driving home from work I noticed a faint smell coming from my air vents--almost like a musky burning smell. As I pulled into my garage I could hear a strange sound coming from under the hood....I opened the hood and the sound was very loud...almost like a fan humming. I looked at my fan, all the belts and pulleys and everything appeared normal. I quickly turned off the engine but the sound remained--even getting louder! The sound was like a cross between the humming of a fan and a very rapid ticking sound. It would speed up then slow down then, after about 5 minutes it became quieter and finally quit....this is with the engine off. The noise is coming from the part in the pictures (I could even feel it when I put my hand on it)! Does anyone know what this part is or ever have it happen to them??? My dealership’s service department is not open on weekends so I have to wait until Monday……….

Trekman

its an air pump or a smog pump, might be dying I had to replace mine.

Dead Ringer

air pump, just had mine replaced about a month ago, this seems to be a problem with these cars, I have read that quite a few have had to replace them..

SteveL1

How many miles do you have on the car??? Under warranty I hope??

What seems to be the normal life of an air pump on these cars? On my BMW it lasted 123,000 miles.

wawy

Thank you everyone for your responses. SteveL1--my car is a 2002 with 45,000 kilometers/27,961 miles.....Yes, I have warranty until April. I will be purchasing extended warranty for another 3years (This just reinforces my decision). So, is it ok to drive the vehicle to the dealership (15min away)?

Dead Ringer

yes...

SteveL1

27,xxx miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's ridiculous!!!!!!! Is this normal????

cntlaw

Just curious, was that just it is noisy, or does this air pump problem actually affects the performance which is noticable? What if, if does not get fixed in time?

Trekman

well the pump if your car had a bad pump you wont loose any HP or proformance, its a smog device. if you dont replace it you will have the engine light on and might affect your catalitic converter but thats if you drive it like that for 20000 miles or so. when you replace the pump you should replace the relay, the relay is the real cause of the problem thats why the pump fail early. the relay sometimes fail first and doesnt engage properly that makes the pump run longer or hotter.

Subman

The air pump is used for emission purposes, it adds fresh air to the exhaust in order to help the cats heat up getting them to the proper opperating tempature. If you drive your car hard or cruse the pump will not come on it only comes on durring cold starts or if the car is ideling for a while and the cats cool off.
The problem comes from the realy for the pump, they stick in the colsed postion and make the pump run on and never shut off, thus burning up the pump.
The pump will not affect the performance of your car. As Trekman said you can eventualy dammge your cats but that is not very likely. Also if you are out of warranty you may still be able to get it covered under the US gov 8/80 law (emission devices must cary a 8 year 80,000 mile warranty).

SteveL1

Where can I go to find more about this???? Possibly print something out to take with me to the dealer when something happens....not that it will mind you! Thanks, as I had not heard of the 8/80 law!

wawy

Everyone has been very helpful and informative -- thanks. I went for a drive today and it doesn’t appear to be doing it. Is this an intermittent thing that progressively gets worse?

rrf

Replace the relay ($15) yourself ASAP, maybe you can save the pump ($100s).