You know, I was sat in my car trying to work out what the whistle was. It was uncanny how similar the sound was. Cheers!

Perfect, thanks! My sons Mini had the exact same sound. pulled the wheel, liner, and checked the pulley. Yep that is it. Got one on order. I was thinking it might be supercharger, so I'm glad it is an easy fix.

Yup same noise. I have the part. 2008 mini. This was very helpful. Thnx.

Thanks. Just fitted this on my 2004 cooper s. Worked a treat! Pulley was only £20.

excellent post! spent hours looking for a cheap aux belt tool. then came across this! yoink!

Currently stranded in Iowa with the same problem! FML wife is driving 6 hours with my truck and a trailer so I can tow it home tomorrow. Thanks for the video!

Hey thanks a lot for posting this as I have the same issue on my 2014 Mini One and was dreading an altenator replacement or a Thrust bearing but you hit the nail on the head and saved me a stack. Thanks a million.

I told u about the sound earlier from my mini. It's not attached with engine acceleration like this . It's different and not much noisy 😶 :) mine is not idler pulley ) but u r good in mechanic that's a good thing to do all by ur self.

You great man.. I believe I might have this same problem. I'm going to tackle it soon and your video has been so helpful. Thanks :)

My 04 cooper s has started to make that noise for the last few days but it sounds louder than yours. I couldn't tell which pulley was making the noise. Thanks for your video, hopefully you've helped find my problem too.

My mini noise starts at 4k revs onwards , new alternator last year done less than 700miles , whilstling squealing in throttle at 4k revs onwards, idle is fine , :( bloody things fun when working 😊

December 17, 2018 The same thing happened to me, however I ignored the sound of the idler pulley and continue driving two weeks later, my serpentine belt broke while I was driving, this causes your battery to drain and your coolant temperature to increase rapidly, the vehicle will come to a stall to protect the engine from damage, I ended up parking my car on the side of the road in a lot, went out and bought another belt for $20, thinking that I could go home with it, and the new belt broke within 1 mile. I had a friend pull my car home about 15 miles with a rope, no battery no headlights no nothing no wiper blades and it was raining hard. I found a new idler pulley on Amazon for 30 bucks My advice to everyone is this if it starts squealing replace it immediately because you do not want to break your belt and be stranded. And yes I had to remove the wheel and the splash guard to access the belt. There's no other way around it. You can lift the tensioner with a crowbar if it's straight try not to damage any of the other wheel pulleys

The torque for the idler pulley bolt is 45 Nm (33 ft-lb). In the Bentley manual it's in the section on removing the timing chain housing cover, page 117-15. Apparently the timing chain is the only job where you'd have to remove the idler pulley.

yup my 2010 clubman is doing this i knew something was not right i bought it like that a day ago for a very good price i will get it fixed before i start driving it around thanks for posting this saved me $115 dollars in a inspection fee

Your video really helped me to find where my noise was from ! Greetings from France !

I’m having the same issue even after replacing the idler pulley. It slowly went away but it came back and it’s louder than ever. I’m hoping it’s the belt since I forgot to replace the belt.

Nice work Daddio👍😎

Omg this just happened to me tonight, reading some of these comments I’m not driving the car till I fix it. Not gonna risk it.. luckily I have another car but thank you to for this video!

Iv done one of these before but this time i ordered this exact same part, Its a Litens pulley and i wanted to ask can you remeber if it has adjustment? It looks like it does as your tightening as the bolt head doesnt stay centrally aligned to the pulley hat face? Mine seems to have adjustment and i dont like it the one i took of was fixed

thanks! had the same noise, thought it was the supercharger...cheap, easy fix !!!

Sounds like the same noise on my 2011 R56 MCS. Investigation and tool out time.

Thats the fvckin noise man. Holy shjt. I thought it was the trowout bearing being bad. It was, but still there. Thank you so much.

I have the same noise and this causes my battery to run low and dead, what do you suggest? Can this cause the battery not to charge? Because i bought new battery whiles still hearing the noise, after driving for some few days, the new battery runs dead.

It'is the source of the problem when ac turn on and there some noise in the cabin ? Because i think had this problem too

I have the same noise coming from my mini. When I shot some WD40 on the alternator pulley it stopped. Do you know if the alternator pulley is replaceable? Or do I have to replace the whole alternator.

My 05 R53 is making the exact same noise, but I just changed the idler pulley tonight like in your video, but unfortunately it hasn't fixed the problem - the sound is still there :( Do you have any suggestions on what to try next? Thank you!

i'd be more worried with all that oil? mabe leak from crankshaft seal?

the mechanic just told me to get a new PULLEY for a MINI COOPER CLUBMAN 2009, I got to be honest this is stressing me, cause I changed the belt cause it broke, I change the thermostat and now this, I hope ill be done after that.

Hey man, I REALLY need your help on this and pretty much anyone that comes across this problem too. I recently had the same issue, I own a 03 Cooper S and it had the exact same sound as you did in your 04 before replacing anything on it. Infact worst case scenario happened. Belt slipped off, tore in a vertical manor and I was left stranded, had to move little by little giving that it rapidly drains your battery life and quickly raises up the temperature of your coolant. When I had the opportunity, I went ahead and took a step further in upgrading the Belt Tensioner, Idler Pulley and a Gates belt. Just after 3 days of fixing it the Squealing returned. But this time It only starts past 2000RPMs and pretty much increases volume after that mark. I have partially discarded the misalignment issue giving it I've checked all the pulleys for any play and none of them seem to move at all. The belt is brand new and no reason for it to be squealing on that end. It has really giving me headaches at this point not quite sure on what to do next. I will reply to this comment if I find out the solution to this issue, meanwhile, problem will remain. (Car is bone stock, no SC reduction pulley, nor Harmonic Balancer swap.) (I also have noticed a water leak in the center of the car, if that has anything to do with it.)

Hey Dude please I need help! I changed a couple of days a go the alternator belt and the pulley. I removed the lower vent valve connection(squeesing vacum) 3:34 but i forgot to put it back.I started the engine for couple of minutes with the new belt and I heared a strange noise . I checked the engine and realised that was the connection that I have forgot. I put it on and after 3 seconds the engine turned off and wont start again. Pleaasee heeelp. Freundliche Grüße von Deutschland.(mini cooper r53 2003)

My car makes a sound just like that when I accelerate. Is the idle pulley the issue?

Can you make a video on how to clearly use the wood clamp? I know that this is an old video, but it's kinda unclear :/

I feel like I have the same problem but I hear it on the left drivers side :(

I change this pulley on mine but still making that noise😭😭😭

Torque is 33ft lbs

GAWD DAYM THAT OLD LEAK THO

id say tight is tight , cross threaded or torqued. lol never cross thread . I've learned the hard way

So that can’t be it

thats a ringing noise not a whistle

f×××××g hell they dont give you much room to work ?