Strange sound at idle with headlights on, is it my alternator?

[Bronze MFP]

It only happens when the car is idleing with the headlights or headlights/foglights on. The sound is definitly louder with head/fog lights on at the same time rather than just the headlights. The sound is almost a squeaky belt sound, but i checked the belts, and they are all fine. Is my alternator about to take a dump on me? the voltmeter still reads close to 14v, so i'm not sure whats going on. Any help would be appreciated.-Neil

edit: it seems that the sound occurs whenever I put any load on the electrical system. I was just rolling my windows up and it made that sound when the window reached its stop and I still had the window button pushed.

[slc240sxse]

My 96 does this as well, i wouldnt worry about it.

[sanioll]

same here, but happens only when i used the battery a lot without car running.

or its cold abit, and rpm falls below idle due to opening/closing windows.

FIX: replace alternator belt.CAUSE: from my past elementary college physics knowledge, I believe i'm right; If you place more load(require more power from alternator) on alternator, its going to be hard to turn it. More resistance. Since belt is old, it starts squeaking. simply replace them.

[Bronze MFP]

im pretty sure its not the belt, I replaced all of them when I replaced my water pump. I havn't had my splash gaurd on for a few weeks, and i drove it through some pretty bad storms this past week. maybe some water got in it. It's still running fine, so I guess i'll just deal with it and keep my fingers crossed

[hachibroku]

Maybe your alternator needs bearings. i wouldnt worry about it really until the alternator dies. you can rebuild an alternator and put new brushes, rectifier bridge and new bearings and most of the time it fixes the problem.

[xekushnr]

its fine, it does it in my 240 and it does it in my DD '05 neon.