Oh yeah, about the noise and it dying, I did have that happen to me several years ago. That time it turned out it was the crankshaft pully/damper which I think was at the bottom on the engine. Had the dealer do it at the time as I couldn't stand the noise, engine never died on me though. Pully was $58 and I got hit with $38 for the belt at the time. I think at the time I got an aftermarket belt for $25 so maybe the price of belts have gone down in the last few years, hard to believe the price of any automotive part going down. Then there was that 2.1 hours for labor which might also have been robbery. $251.12 at the time. Ouch, hope that's not the case for you.
If you do a search, you'll find other threads on pullys and I guess it could also be the idler pully, or idler tensioner that's making the noise.
