High pitch whining noise (I know what a turbo sounds like 🥴)

8539 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by ahan0619, 1 mo ago

anickode

Discussion Starter · Apr 15, 2021

Soooo I have a high pitch whine in my canyon. It's been noticeable for a month or so now. It's not the turbo, the wife, or the kids. I don't think it's coming from the speakers, but since you can't really turn the audio system completely off, I guess it's hard to say for sure.

It sounds like a supercharger. In the passenger side foot well. Cruising at any speed, nothing. Accelerating or climbing a hill, it gets louder, and maybe slightly higher in pitch, but it mostly just gets louder and definitely correlates to engine LOAD, not RPM.

I thought maybe the injection pump was getting grouchy because my fuel filter life just touched the single digit percentages, but no change after replacing them. Seemed like a stretch anyway.

No CELs. No fault codes. Doesn't seem to be down on power. No funny smells. Haven't used it for anything beyond its normal duties. Everything showing within normal parameters for engine, trans, emissions, all of it when pulling live data.

Any ideas?

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aplqst1

· #2 · Apr 15, 2021

Sounds familiar, i had many of the same symptoms and sounds last summer.. turned out to be broken (missing) fins
on the turbo.. while mine also made noise under load and acceleration, i really noticed a drop in highway trailer towing fuel mileage. new turbo and assorted hoses and gaskets fixed the problem.. mine is a 2016 and i think the new turbo performs better than the last one ever did.

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PowderMonkey

· #3 · Apr 22, 2021

There’s nothing wrong with the turbo, it’s a boost leak at the turbo. Take it to the dealer and tell them to inspect all the bolts that connect the turbo to engine. A thousand bucks says one of those bolts it completely gone, that’s your problem. The new “fix” for this problem is a high temp lock tight. GM is aware of this issue. I hope that’s all it is for you, it was for me after three new turbos. Needless to say my dealer are pros at this issue because of my truck. Whenever they get a diesel with whine they know right where to look.

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Cheerfulpimp

· #4 · May 5, 2022

Exhaust manifold gasket! Same thing happened to me. Thought it was the turbo. $10 part.

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jmasse

· #5 · May 13, 2022

PowderMonkey said:
There’s nothing wrong with the turbo, it’s a boost leak at the turbo. Take it to the dealer and tell them to inspect all the bolts that connect the turbo to engine. A thousand bucks says one of those bolts it completely gone, that’s your problem. The new “fix” for this problem is a high temp lock tight. GM is aware of this issue. I hope that’s all it is for you, it was for me after three new turbos. Needless to say my dealer are pros at this issue because of my truck. Whenever they get a diesel with whine they know right where to look.

I am having an irritating whining noise from the right side of the engine.....and it does it much more often when pulling a trailer. Raises and lowers in pitch based on RPM. It does it sometimes unloaded, but rarely. Think it's the same thing as this?

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SFLTruck

· #6 · May 16, 2022

jmasse said:
I am having an irritating whining noise from the right side of the engine.....and it does it much more often when pulling a trailer. Raises and lowers in pitch based on RPM. It does it sometimes unloaded, but rarely. Think it's the same thing as this?

Check all the pressurized hoses for cracks and the turbo mounting bolts.

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PowderMonkey

· #7 · May 16, 2022

jmasse said:
I am having an irritating whining noise from the right side of the engine.....and it does it much more often when pulling a trailer. Raises and lowers in pitch based on RPM. It does it sometimes unloaded, but rarely. Think it's the same thing as this?

That sounds oddly familiar, especially towing a trailer. All of a sudden it just started, out of the blue. You can check it yourself, grab a little mirror and look for any loose or missing bolts around the turbo. Especially where the down pipe connects the turbo. Look for areas of soot in this area. It’s there and it will never stop until you use the high temp lock tight and replace the gasket or delete the truck. In that case the problem area gets removed altogether.

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anickode

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jun 5, 2022

There WAS something wrong with the turbo. Bent compressor blade. Just the very corner of one blade bent back a tiny amount. Enough to make it whistle like crazy, not enough to throw off the balance or make me lose any power. Was replaced under warranty.

But if you're having this same noise and can't attribute it to anything else, pull your intake tube and check the inlet side of the turbo.

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PowderMonkey

· #9 · Jun 5, 2022

Cool man, glad you got it figured out. That must have been that way from the beginning then? Let’s hope that’s the end of it.

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ahan0619

· #10 · 1 mo ago

I'm having the same problem with my truck. Does anyone have pictures of this? I'm not a diesel turbo specialist but pictures and videos on how to repair would go along ways.

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