Hi, i notice that when my car starts on a cold start i get this noise for about a minute or 3. i opened the hood and figured out the noise was coming from this part. any idea what it is or what i'd need to do to fix it? its sort of a high pitched noise.

 

I believe it's an air pump that pumps air into the exhaust or something like that to help with emissions.

Mine makes the same noise and I've been told by other members that it's ok.

 

oh ok. sometimes its real embarassing. i thought it was a real problem but i guess its ok

 

The pump is bad. It doesn't necessarily need to get replaced, since it's only for a minute. Or you can remove it if emissions don't matter.

 

If you're not a greeny, you can unplug the air pump, it only operates during cold starts. IIRC , the bearings are replaceable.

 

Air pump helps to speed up the warm up process by recycling some exhaust air.

you don't exactly need it, will not affect the car's performance.

 

The bearings are the cause of the noise? Where can I find said bearings to replace?

 

Take it off, disassemble and lubricate or replace.

Easy and peasy.

 

Can you remove the entire pump, or would that lead to some sort of vacuum leak?

 

Generally when one installs a catless midpipe, they remove the airpump. Without a cat, the airpump serves no purpose. RacingBeat sells a $12 block off plate for the exhaust manifold for this process.

You CAN remove the pump entirely, however i'm not clear on which electrical connections you need to leave intact as to not trigger a CEL. Hopefully someone else can help you there. I'm SURE its been covered before elsewhere on this forum.