squeeling noise - pulley or pump?

[MarkQ45]

92 Q45. The noise occurs when the car is cold and gradually fades as it warms up. I know that this noise is either the tensioner pulley or the water pump. I think that it is the water pump because the pulley seems fine when the belt is off. The pump is not leaking. My question is, can the bearings in the pump make this noise and should I replace it?

[Q451990]

Your best bet is a mechanic's stethoscope like this one... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=41966

I'd have the car up on jack stands with the bottom cover off - then start it up so you'll have plenty of time to find it. I'd bet on a pully first, but who knows... the water pump typically leaks before it fails.

Heath

[Aus94Q45]

It is easy to check the pully's from under the car. Jack it up, take off the lower cover and loosen each of the three tensioners, one at a time. The pully should spin freely and quietly. If not, the pully is bad. FYI this is common to all Nissans. I have had a Z, truck, Maxima and now the Q. The truck got the fewest miles before needing a pully at 45K. The Z and Q all pullys at 90K. The Q pullies are in common with other Nissan pullies. Easy and fairly inexpensive to replace. As noted recently, be sure to just buy the pully and not the whole assembly -- save some $.

[Aus94Q45]

Oops, I did not finish. It sounds like you checked the water pump pully, but be sure to check the power steering and AC pullys. With the engine on it is diffcult to hear where the noise originates. Also, I would hesitate to climb under the car with it on to use a stethoscope. You will not be able to get to the power sterring pully with the car running, without risking loosing a finger or two!

[juiceman]

May sound weird but I use xmas wrapping tube to pin point the area.

I sort of triangulate the noise by pinpointing the area from three spearate locations. Been pretty successful too. And talk about cheap

My luck with a bad ac tensioner pully resulted in a loan groan. The only way to determine the problem was to actually pull the pully off and feel by hand. Not too difficult on the J30.

Good luck

[90Q45blue]

exact same thing happened to my Q. Turns out it was the idling pulley on the alternator (or something like that). A $30 job but I went ahead and replaced the power steering pump anyway since i already bought one. by the way, p/s pump is what the dealer told me and they obviously were wrong.

Nick

[CJQ45]

Hey Mark,

Did you find the culprit - the waterpump or the tensioner pulley? I have a 94 Q45 with 125k. I'v got the exact squeeling problem that you've described. When the car is warm - everthing is ok. It only occurs at start-up

[DAEDALUS]

Tighten up the belts a little and see if that helps at all. The Q is nice in that all belts have threaded tensioners. No prying required.

[DAEDALUS]

Do a search on the belts...one pitfall is to make sure you loosen the pulley nut before you start tensioning and to tighten the nut up when you're done. Tension and torque values should be in the manual.

[greg_atlanta]

It's difficult to spin a pulley by hand as fast as the engine can spin it. My A/C pulley was "fine" when it was removed and inspected but then started making noise when the engine was above 6000 rpm.

The other two pullies made noise at lower rpms... they gradually get worse.

[CJQ45]

I just had all 3 belts replaced. I doubt its the belts that are squeeling. The squeeling noise only comes at start-up for about 30 sec. to a minute. The RPM's at start up are about 1200 or so. I don't think its a RPM related issue.

I'v noticed that on wet days (high mositure in air), the noise goes away quicker. Its gotta be the waterpump (which I doubt) or one of the tensioners.

Mark - if you see this post - just curious if you found the cause.

Thanks everyone -:help