Whirring noise

[dianagerk]

My van makes a whirring noise when it first starts up.
After I warm it up for 10 minutes it goes away.
i live in Hawaii, so the weather is never very cold.
the van is 1988 Toyota van LE, with 155,000 miles.
i am the original owner.
bought it brand new in 1988.
any thought out there as to what this could be?

[djshimon]

Where's the sound coming from? Raise the "hood" and investigate. There are many spinning parts that could make this sound.
My van had a weird stalling distributor that would whir/whine on startup. Also my 1985 volvo has a whir on startup especially when cold.

[timsrv]

One common failure is the bearing inside the idler pulleys (power steering and AC belts get tension by adjusting these). Sometimes when these bearings begin to fail there can be a noise like you describe. To check remove these belts and spin the pulleys by hand. They should spin freely, smoothly, and silently. If you give them a spin and remove your hand, they should continue spinning for several more revolutions. If not, then you should replace the bearing inside. Here's a link to a thread where this has been discussed: http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?1880-Diagnosing-Squealing&highlight=pulley+bearing. Tim