So... I hope this is just a pulley or something... Haha. The sheiking is pretty rare but the ticking is pretty much there 70% of the time.

Banshee sheiking
V6 Banshee shriek - Google Drive

Ticking
Clickity click click - Google Drive

Still uploading the other video.

Thoughts?

Upload a longer video from in the cab and under the hood. What have you done recently?

I'll try to do that. I actually meant for the first one to be longer but for some reason my phone stopped recording before I thought I hit it... Anyway, yeah I'll see if I can get some better ones. I've tried open hood videos but this phone's microphone pretty much explodes and it's just loud muffles with no detail really.. haha.
Wish I had a nice microphone that could handle it.

Oops, forgot to say that she's actually not shrieked since the first time so I do think it has something to do with the cold.


As far as what I've done, not much really. Fuel pressure regulator I think might have been the last item? Not much else.

I was going to try to get under her to see if it is that ac belt pulley idler wheel. If I put my ear near that area at the front I feel like I can hear squeaking. Unfortunately I did not think to try to do that when it was being extremely loud.

I would suspect a vacuum line since you said it happens when it's cold and you did the fuel pressure regulator which requires removing vacuum lines to do, but it could also be belt/pulley related.

As long as your battery is good you can remove accessory drive belts as needed to narrow down your noise if you think it's belt driven. Water pump is driven by the timing belt. Just be careful not to run it too long without the alternator charging or the fan being "powered".

Oh that's a good idea. I'll need to look and see how to remove the belts as I've actually never done it... Haha.

Is there an easy test for a vacuum leak? I actually checked the physical connections this morning but I didn't think about a leak..

Spraying carb cleaner/brake cleaner on the vacuum lines and intake pipes while listening for an rpm change

Finding vacuum leaks.... use brake cleaner WD40 etc and spray it around the intake and vacuum connections. With everything fully connected, and engine idling. If you have a leak the engine mostly speeds up when you hit the area its leaking...;)

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OHHHHH. So it basically "injests" the spray and that burning would make the rpm rise a bit? Wow how did I not think of that... Lol

Learn something new everyday. Yes it seals the leak and if flammable will be sucked in and burnt.. You get the idea.

Okay so just a quick update, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing... But both noises seem to have mysteriously disappeared after an oil change. I don't really understand the correlation or if there is one or not...

However it's also super cold again today so I'll see if when I leave the office for lunch it shrieks in the cold

The shreiking while cold (I did also notice it was at a cold start) is most likely a loose belt. Each belt has one pulley that can be adjusted outwards to increase tension. There will be a lock nut you'll loosen and then a tensioner bolt that you'll turn COUNTERCLOCKWISE to increase tension. Tightening the tensioner bolt will loosen the belt. The power steering tensioner bolt is very hard to get to so maybe do the alternator and A/C belts first. When finished re-tighten the lock nuts.

The second is either the good 'ol Toyota tick or old oil. You said it's quiet now after an oil change so it was probably that. If it comes back, it's the fuel injectors and fuel pressure regulator. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, they just tick-tick-tick with age.

There is more than one idler pulley? I swear I only saw one for the AC compressor belt. I'll have to try to get down there again and look. I do feel like I hear noise from the AC belt pulley, and since it is cheap I might as well swap it I guess.

I recall people saying Taco Tick for the 4.0 v6, I guess the 3.4 has a tick as well? If so that's okay, I just wanted to take action if I needed to!

You have an idler pully on your ac belt. The power steering uses the pump as the adjustment. The alternator is the adjustment for the adjustment and the timing belt uses its 1 or 2 idler pulleys as adjustment with the automatic tensioner doing the adjustment.

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@jross20 yeah I've got a tick-tick-tick once warm here at 22 years and 208xxx miles but everything seems fine. No symptoms. New oil. No leaks AFAIK. Doesn't burn any oil. Multiple mechanics have said the engine sounds great (for its age). I'll do a compression test next time I do plugs just to get a baseline, but it seems like the "Toyota tick" is real..

Its the vsv valve tick.