My boss drove his 95 L67 Riviera to work today for me to diagnose an idle rattle and whine with my mechanic'* stethescope.

The diagnosis on his car is the rattle at idle is the SC coupler, and the whine is probably one of the idlers.

While we were at it, we did some comparisons to my car. I've been noticing what I thought was lifter clatter the last couple months. We attempted to narrow it down to a particular lifter, but whenever we put the stethescope on the heads or valve covers, it was dead silent. Good news.

Tracked the noise down to the Alternator. Odd that it'* a lifter-clatter type noise, and NOT on the rear as I would expect. It seems to be coming from the front bearing. All brackets are tight btw, and the alternator is running fine electrically. This is one to watch, but also a good reason why a $10 mechanic'* stethescope is worth it'* weight in gold.

you knew you could use a cut off piece of a broomhandle and do the same thing right?

my car was making this racket and it turned out to be the harmonic balancer

Broomhandles and screwdrivers work, but nowhere near what a mechanic'* stethescope can do.

i know where did you get yours?

Any auto parts store should have one. They're tuned for acoustics to make it easier to hear. A broom handle or screwdriver will tell you GENERALLY where the problem might be, but these buggers will tell you damn near EXACTLY where the problem lies. In this situation, I can actually tell that it'* the front bearing of the alternator, not just the alt itself.

The DP alt makes noise? Hopefully it'* just normal for his new bearing pack.

No, this is a new noise. Just in the last couple months.

Nothing better some times than a good mechanic'* stethescope for sure

Can the dp alternator be rebuilt? or so you still have warranty?

Gotta get ahold of Ty. I doubt much can be done until it craps out completely. I have a crappy (fairly new) 105 amp spare, so I'll be ok for a bit if I have to swap it out.

wow that'* pretty neat, I didn't even know there was such an animal. I've never seen a mechanic use one before, hmmmmm.