Could be the brushes are worn on the alternator field coil. Also might be that the suppressor that is mounted externally on many alternators has failed. Check this and any ground straps FIRST before doing the more expensive repairs. You can also disconnect the alternator wires to see if the whine goes away to verify that it IS the alternator. Ground straps at the alternator and radio to frame ground are very important in keeping the radio signal clean.
Hello, I have a 96 SC2 with 112K miles. Just the other day, a whining noise started via the radio's speakers that changes pitch with engine RPM changes. Could this be anything other than the voltage regulator (i.e. can I fix this any other way than buying a new alternator?). The battery is 3 mos old, and the alternator was replaced at 40K miles, so it has about 70K and 6 years on it. Thanks much in advance for any suggestions.
Try checking and cleaning the battery-to-frame ground strap and the alternator-to-frame and alternator-to-battery connections. Normally I'd suspect the battery going bad but it's only 3 months old. Tim.
You could put a noise suppression filter from Radio Shack on the leads to the radio but that would be masking the problem which may be a defective alternator diode. As mentioned, you could also have a bad ground somewhere. A voltage difference of just 0.5 volts in some poor ground connection can show up in the radio as a lot of noise. Fwiw, I just put a Radio Shack noise suppressor (the $15-20 larger one with the three wires (blue, red, black) on a motorcycle to suppress the alternator whine in the communicator/mixer and mp3 player. Oddly, it worked. B~
The infamous 'death whine' of a Saturn alternator going bad. 70K miles and 6 years isn't bad for an alternator on an "S" series Saturn. Ken (MI)
