Hello,

Been hearing a grinding noise on my Ranger when it idles. Noise goes away as soon as i accelerate. It only seems to happen on idle and seems the sound is on the bottom of the engine. Hopefully its nothing internal inside the engine. Could it be the idler pulley is messed up?

Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome to the forum

Good to post the year and engine with questions
2002 3.0l Ranger

After engine is cold, has been sitting for at least 5 hours, remove the fan belt from the crank shaft pulley
Start engine, battery light will stay on, no alternator

See if noise is gone, engine bay will be VERY quiet with no fan noise so you should be able to localize any noise if there is any
You can only run the engine without water pump for 60-90seconds, which is plenty of time to isolate a noise
And you can repeat this test as many times as needed AFTER engine is cold again

If no noise then shut off the engine
Spin each pulley by hand to see if you can hear a noise

On the 3.0l engines the Cam sensor/synchronizer could wear out around 100k miles and make a squealing noise, not grinding noise
Its at the back top side of engine