Squealing noise at start-up.

[Johnny78]

Can anyone guide me as to what could be the problem with this noise? Every time I start my car I hear this very loud squealing sound for about 20-30 seconds. I had new belts put on — and it actually got a little worse. I did put belt spray on them today and that was no help, so I don't think it's the belts anymore. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John
Modified by Johnny78 at 12:55 PM 10/5/2009

[Qxxx4]

belt dressing only covers up the problem in the short term, Use it when your belts start getting a little older to prevent premature cracking but not when theyre new. If you did the belts yourself you might need to change tension settings. I had mine done by a mechanic and brought it in when id have a 5 second squeal everytime i started, it turned out that my Power Steering belt was loose, they tightened it and I havent had any squeals since

[slickroger]

Loose belts I just dealt with this problem yesterday.

I had a 30 second squeal like you i reduced it to 5 now nothing. Belts were just a little loose, hardly noticable.

[Johnny78]

Thank you for the tips. I'm taking it in tomorrow to have the belts tightened.

[slickroger]

there real easy to tighten your self you just need a socket and the ability to get under the vehicle. the nuts you need to tighten are very easy to notice

[carnal_c30]

dont over tighten the belts, you can look up proper specs on tightening and the proper deflection with the fsm

if all that fails the belt tensioner may be bad

[Andrew224]

I had the same problem. Had new belts put on. Then had them readjusted. Then had the idler tensioner and alternator pulleys replaced. Finally, on my 4th trip they replaced the fan clutch and the squeal was finally gone. So it's hard to say what it is, even when the truck is right in front of you.

Thankfully, it was all under warranty (except the belts which needed to be replaced anyways).

Good luck,

Andrew

[sicwitit]

I had the same problem, I went to autozone, bought some belts, then took them to Nissan, and compared them to the Auto zone belts....needless to say, I took the autozone belts back.

Oh, I should mention when I replaced all the belts, I had a problem with one of the tensioner pulleys, I think it was the lowest one on the block. Mine bent when removing/lossening the belt. I took it to Nissan and they told me that alot of Pathfinders have this problem and a new tensioner was $165. I didn't like the sound of it, so I went home and bent it back into shape, and welded some braces onto it. I can't take pics of it now, but I will when I get back in the states and post up a how to I guess. just be forwarned, if you have the same problem when changing your belts out, and you run into that issue, there is an expensive fix that might not solve the problem next time, or a simple fix that will perminatly fix the issue.

JT

[NashvilleJoe]

http://tinyurl.com/kfhsbpx

so here is the sound my QX4 makes and its now on its 4th trip to the shop - any suggestions??

thanks in advance!!

[Towncivilian]

The shop tightened the belts, I assume? IIRC our vehicles really like the belts tight, so maybe it still needs some more tightening. How old are the belts?

Welcome to NICO.

[NashvilleJoe]

shop replaced the belts, tightened the belts, replaced the tensioner pulley and we are now back to our 4th visit- and the "if we can't fix whats wrong we'll refund what you have paid us on this problem"- good shop in principle- would rather have a quiet car- I did mention to them the fan clutch and asked them to take a look- so we'll see.

i was just curious if the sound was familiar to anyone - thnx!!

[Chuck Tribolet]

That's a good shop.

Your recording sure sounds like belt squeal.

Is worse when the weather is real cold?

Even worse if you turn the headlights on for a minute or two before starting?


Chuck

[patqx4]

tighten the belts. I deal with this every winter and that fixes it.

[ClintSmith]

Mine was my alternator dying. I switched it out. (after it officially died and I figured out the alternator was gone.) And it fixed it. I'd tightened everything to factory specs a few weeks before and it didn't resolve it. I'm personally convinced that because the alternator was going out, it was probably getting the belt stuck in there and then when it would unbind it would fix itself. But then again I'm not very intelligent when it comes to cars.

[dareno]

I have very similar noise. Sometimes it appears on the start-up and sometimes during drive when steering wheel is locked and it can be heard even for few minutes. It is much worse when there is a cold weather.
The belts were replaced last July and the mechanic says that they are tightened well although he doesn't have a tension gauge.

[maxmileage]

hey clintsmith, I believe I may have an alt. dying out as well. Wondering what yours sounded like. I replaced my driver side idler pulley because the bearing in it was grinding pretty loud sporadically after startup for a few minutes. Now I notice that until the truck gets warmed up I still have a kinda loose/worn/dragging bearing sound on the alternater side. I removed the idler pulley on that side and the bearing in is smooth and solid. The sound goes away by the time the truck gets up to temp. Thinking it is the alternator or water pump. Just not sure how to tell which one. Thanks

[ClintSmith]

I'm honestly rather ignorant when it comes to automotive stuff. I had a small squeal at first for about a month, and then after a couple of months it would basically just make that evil belt squeal for about 15-30 seconds after startup, never heard any bearing noises or anything like that. It was just the squeal at startup. And then losing all power in the middle of an intersection and getting towed into a parking lot. My friend actually surprised me while I was inside work by replacing it. I never even saw when he was under there. (It's amazing how great friends are when they owe you money lol)

[donald]

I had the squeal on startup too. Mine didn't last as long as 30sec though - no more than 10sec for me. 30sec would be horror! :P

Anyway - I forget where I got this idea (whether it was here on the NICO forums or on NPORA), but I took the belt tensioner/idler pulley off and put some grease around the center/bearing.

Reference this picture:
http://www.digitalequilibrium.com/image ... vebelt.png
from your very own NICO forum
changing-serpentine-belts-t458647.html

I believe I did both of the idler pulleys (idler pulley on alternator belt and the idler pulley on the A/C belt)

Anyway - the idea behind it was the pulley wheel wasn't rotating; probably after sitting for some time. The grease would allow it to spin initially on the grease until the bearing freed up.
OR - it could have been by chance that (after loosening and re-tightening the tensioner pulley) I remedied a loose/over-tight belt

Having done this about 2years ago, I've only started getting an occasional 1sec squeal... occasional I mean maybe once every 1 or 2 months.

[varnco]

I tightened the heck out of the accessory belt (new) and it stopped squealing.