Whining bearing noise

[Demi23]

Hello all,

My Audi A4 2.0 tdi (B8) has developed a whine that appears to be coming from the alternator area. I might attempt to remove the aux belt to rule out timing belt and pulleys. 

Does anyone here know where i can find a how-to for putting the front panel into service mode? Surprisingly google wasn't very helpful! 

thanks

Dem 

[Steve Q]

This could be the alternator bearing. 

[Demi23]

18 minutes ago, Steve Q said:

This could be the alternator bearing. 

likely to be an internal bearing? i know the pulley can be replaced.

[Stevey Y]

46 minutes ago, Demi23 said:

likely to be an internal bearing? i know the pulley can be replaced.

Hi best practise is to remove the drive belt and then try it, carefully spin the idler pulleys and check for any roughness as the bearings are rotated if they seem okay and the noise is gone when running its either the alternator clutch or an internal bearing in which case you might be better served getting a reconditioned unit as you will need special tools and a world of patience to strip your unit plus a rebuild kit, not cheap, the replacement option is a lot cheaper.

Steve.