Electric motor noise under the hood.
 

There is a loud electric motor noise coming from under the hood on startup, and lasting for a few minutes. The electric motor is on top and to the left of the engine between the battery and the washer bottle. The connector is right on top, so I pulled it. The noise went away, confirming the source of noise.

What does this motor do, and why is it so noisy?

Air Pump....emissions device...not really important

It's noisy cause the pump is screwed :)

It should sound a bit like a vacuum cleaner motor - cuz that is what it is :)

If it is really noisy then dannobre is correct - it is munted .

On a bright note - lots of us have removed it so if you ask , someone will most likely sell you one pretty cheaply .

or u could always just remove yours

Are these people serious about this ?

I mean, dude, get to know your car. Mr. Epic failed.

removing it, does it or would it make any difference? i guess its taking voltage and little power, but enough to do anything?

removing it will earn you a CEL . So unless you can live with that or have the AP it is not such a good idea ....

^NO black electrical tape ALSO takes care of the CEL hahaha

It should only make noise on cold start up and then go away.

^yeah it's something like 2 minutes after start up(cold) should it be on.....

I am much relieved. But what the heck does it do? I mean does it actually accomplish anything?

Injects air into the exhaust manifold at cold startup to rapidly heat up the CAT so it works more efficiently

^and help reduce emissions on start up...

Uber failed.