I'm a bit slow. Some of you may remember that my wife's car blew out the high pressure SLS hose. I replaced it, but it left SLS fluid all over the engine area. I used the engine cleaner (Gunk) to clean it up- and during this clean up I sprayed the engine and forgot about the alternator. I had sprayed it with water and "cleaned" the alt. Right after the whine started but I forgot because I went back to NY. I heard the small left over whine when I came back and asked her about it and she said it just started- which was not true... so I was hunting down the whine. My indie reminded me of this and like a Emeril "BAM!" it hit me that I caused the whine with my Gunk/degreaser/water wash. Moral of the story: don't wash your alternator with "Gunk" then spray it with water.