squealing driving me nuts!

[MyFirstZ]

I have had this squealing problem for a long time now.. i believe since i first got the car. It sounds similar to belts slipping or something... it only does it when i first start the car and after it stops it will not do it again... but i have watched the pulleys very closely while this is happening several times. the only thing i can see is that the water pump is slowing down in rotation while it is making this noise and as soon as it stops the water pump pulley speeds up in rotation. and the weird thing about it is... the water pump is one of the first things i replaced on this car when i got it! any advice would be greatly appreciated guys!! this is going to drive me insane if i cant get it figured out!!

[es.biggs]

if it sounds like belts slipping, maybe it's a tensioner...they don't feel really loose do they?

[jona300zx]

the same thing happens to me....... a mechanic told me to check the belts......they might be worn,...... today when i was under my car i saw a belt that was kind of chewed up......im going to replace it and ill let you know what happens...

[MyFirstZ]

no... they are not loose... they are new belts.. have hardly any time on them. and they are all tight... it just doesn't make sense to me how it only does it on start up, and i know for sure its something to do with the water pump because you can see it slowed down a lil when its squealing then it starts spinning faster after the squeal is gone.. which kinda leads me to believe that there may be some sludge or something inside the water pump and it squeals til it gets the stuff broke up enough for it to freely spin. is there any way that this could be what the problem is? thanks for the input.

[MyFirstZ]

jona... my belts are all new... so i know that this is not a problem with mine. let me know if it works for you though! thanks.

[es.biggs]

I don't know man, but I hope you don't have to take the timing belt off

It might be your water pump pulley. Could be a bad bearing in there, but I really wouldn't put too much weight on my post because I'm just guessing

[zxFarside]

How new are the belt? When you put on new belts they will stretch and sometimes need to be retensioned.

[dantesdoom]

new belts stretch when you get them ....tighten them back up...several times

^ lol sorry about that farside
Modified by dantesdoom at 8:17 AM 3/1/2010

[sodtoast]

yeah my car is doing the same thing but it only does it when i drive up the mt and leave it in the cold for a long time but i have put a 120k timing belt kit on it. changed the belts and the idle baring and its still doing it the last thing i need to change is the alternator and if its still doing it after im going to light my car on fire

[MyFirstZ]

lol... dont lite her on fire!! yeah.. i just did the 120k service on mine not too long ago too... so i already changed the timing belt.. has a new water pump... is it possible for the bearings to already be going out in a new water pump after only 6 months or so? and i haven't been driving it...

[thaixcore]

i also just changed my timing belt and the same thing occured. later on it stopped. found out that it was my ac compressor tensioner. wasn't tightened all the way. eventually the noise mellowed itself out.

[Kujo II]

It's the alternator. The belt that runs the water pump also runs the alternator. I bet It squeals the worst in the morning after its sat all night. The reason is the battery has had time to drop below 13.4v tighten the hell out of the alternator tensioner and problem will go away. Be sure to loosen the alternator mounting bolt and tensioner bracket bolt, otherwise the tensioner will feel tight when it really isn't due to pulling against those bolts. the belts should be *tight.* You should be able to move the belt about a 1/4 inch by pushing with your finger. Any more than that, and they're too loose. I promise it will fix it, cause I just fixed mine yesterday.

[bgarner]

OK gang let me share some facts here. Last year I replaced a water pump on my wifes explorer. The nest day she started complaining about a squealing noise., I chased this noise for a while and tied it back to the water pump. Believe me when I tell you that there is no the squeal worse than listening to her b**** at me. I have worked with equipment and cars for a long time and could not believe the new water pump is bad.

Six months ago I put a water pump along with the timing belt on my sons Mitsu Eclipse. Shortly after he has a squealing problem., I have looked at everything on it and narrowed it down to either the alternator or the new water pump. Guess what replaced the alternator and the squealing is still there. Honestly I am dumbfounded at this. I will be replacing this water pump in the coming weeks. Oh Joy.

[BWU300zx]

can always try belt dressing? don't know if it actually works. was gonna try it on my belts later...

[MyFirstZ]

so... are you saying that you had to replace the water pump twice on both of those vehicles? thats crazy if so! and it was a big p.i.t.a on the zx if u know what i mean..

[es.biggs]

Could be it a bad fan clutch? I have never heard of them squealing, but I dunno...something else you might want to look into with it being operated off of the same pulley.

Could you get a video or audio clip of the problem? That would help a lot I think