I changed my P/S pump and it turns easier. The wine went away too, for a while. I don't remember for how long, the miles I drive are negligible during quarantine.
But it came back more consistent and louder so I researched more.
I realized it's the alternator, or at least my alternator is failing to charge. My battery has drained easily over the last few months, which I figured was just not driving much, and it got cold, and I got the battery from Walmart, so I wasn't expecting prime performance anyway. But it's barely a year old, figured it can't be that much of a piece of $h1t. So I have been leaving a charger on it most of the time.
I checked the voltage and it was 14.1 a couple weeks back, today I checked it and it's 13.5, while running. I was doing a job for work a few weeks ago where I did a few stops and starting again, and needed a jump after only 3 stops. Even when my car started again, the car didn't want to shift into gear until I'd sat for a few minutes (and didn't turn my car off again that day!). This reminded me of a time a few months ago it did the same thing; I was moving the car in my driveway, and it didn't want to go from D to R, and I was really worried something was up with the transmission, though I've done a few drain/fills and it drives great. Was just a one off where it clunked hard into R after a long pause.
So I saw that when the charge is low, the shifting can be affected. And when I checked the voltage it was lower than it had been, and should be, which explains why the battery has drained off and on. So some of the other pieces fit together.
I know there are other methods I could have used to diagnose it, like I tried to listen to the different pulleys but I couldn't tell a difference. I have a hearing condition actually so that isn't always a reliable sense for me anyway! Ha!
Anyway I changed the serpentine belt, and probably didn't need to change the P/S pump, but I learned about it and it couldn't have hurt at 145,000 miles.
So I am pretty sure I need to change the alternator.
Also I want to say, I am gonna be 40 this year so I'm nowhere near as young as I still feel sometimes, but I like this forum to shoot the $h!t about cars a bit. My dad is an excellent mechanic and taught me everything I know and I used to call him up for anything like this, and as an excuse to talk about life. He isn't as available and we don't talk much now for different reasons, and I don't have a lot of friends who are as hands on with their vehicles as I am. So this forum fills that role for me a lot now.
Thanks for all the wisdom shared.
