[wastintime]

Hey everyone,
I guess I'd be more worried if my car was running badly, but it's running so well that it's hard to really freak out.

Basically, my car spent a couple of months without turning over because one of my best friends is useless. Then I took the car on a 600 mile drive. The only real problem on the drive was the realization I needed to replace the tires soon, lol, now I need to replace them like last week.
On the last leg of the trip I noticed a slight noise coming from the engine compartment that seemed to resemble an audible vacuum leak. At first I thought a vacuum line that I had plugged had just either broken or come unplugged, but no, that's not the case
I heard it occaisionally, finally last night it did it as soon as i cranked the car, so I hopped out and opened the engine cover to listen. With the engine cover open it's actually kind of a frightening noise... It was loud, and of all odd places seemed to be coming from the fan or the alernator maybe? The alternator is literally brand new and working like a champ. The fan looks fine when it's stopped, no nicks or anything like it was hitting the shroud.
I wonder if one of the bearings on either the fan or alternator is dmaged, but again, it doesn't sound like a spun bearing or anything like that. It sounds exactly like a vacuum leak, it's high pitched and sounds like air getting sucked through a small opening. It's intermittent, and then goes away. Never know when you're going to hear it again.
Eh, I don't know... maybe it's got to do with the cold weather here that the car has never seen before? I'll keep investigating, but just thought I'd see if anyone had a similiar experience or had any ideas that immediately jumped out.

Thanks,