Quick question--squeal on startup

jreask

jreask

Member
I have a short squeal on startup. Mine is a 99 4Runner SR5 with 3.4L and manual transmission. When I start the truck whether hot or cold engine I get what sounds like a belt squeal for about one second. All of the belts are tight. The truck has 141K and I don't think the TB has ever been done. Could it possibly be the water pump or one of the tensioners making the squeal?
I'm not much of a mechanic and thought I would get some of you experienced guys opinions. I will do the belt, WP, ETC soon I think. Thanks for your help.


Joe
 
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It could be. I'd grab a bottle of belt condition, spray them, start it up and see what happens. If it goes away, it's one of the drive belts. If it doesn't, you'll have to dig deeper.

You said the belts are tight but what kind of condition are they in? How clean are the pulleys?
 
PitbullRescuer said:
It could be. I'd grab a bottle of belt condition, spray them, start it up and see what happens. If it goes away, it's one of the drive belts. If it doesn't, you'll have to dig deeper.

You said the belts are tight but what kind of condition are they in? How clean are the pulleys?
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They seem to be in good shape. The maintenance records show them being changed about 10K miles ago. I never thought to check the pulleys being dirty. That's why I asked here. This forum is the best. I've done maintenance items I would never have dreamed of doing thanks to the how to's on this forum.
 
I had a tiny tiny coolant leak from the upper rad hose, it would drip on the alt belt, and cause a deafening squeal in the mornings
 
I had a 98 ram with a bad tensioner pulley. Figured it out by hitting the tensioner and idler pulleys one by one with wd40 until the squeal stopped. The bearings inside were junk and once it ran for a while they would heat up and stop.
 
I have this same problem, but only seems to happen early in the mornings or late at night. So the cold air and cold engine start have to have a part in it.
 
TRDteen said:
I have this same problem, but only seems to happen early in the mornings or late at night. So the cold air and cold engine start have to have a part in it.
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Once in a while mine will squeal for about ten seconds but that's always when I start it the first thing in the morning.
 
My truck does the same thing on cold starts. For me it's the power steering pump that squeals. I am fairly confident that it is because of the heavy Lucas power steering stop leak that's in it as a temporary fix for a leaking steering rack
 
I had the same squeal on my 3.4 about 5k after I did the timing belt. I tightened up the tensioner and it hasn't made a peep since. Since there isn't a spring loaded tensioner, you may just need to manually adjust for the wear/stretch of the belts.
 
I've got a similar issue, except mine will squeal on initial use of the AC so that pretty much narrows it down. It's a junkyard replacement compressor so I'm not too sure what I can do to solve it.
 
Belt squeal

Let's revive this thread.

Got my dream car, 2002 T4R Limited, about a month ago. Found her online in PA, flew out, bought her, drove her home to Chicago and spent the night on the PA Turnpike bc I thought I'd outrun that blizzard, ha. 148K @ purchase, just turned over to 150K, 1-owner, all records, TB/WP replaced @ 85K, maintained perfectly. Full tune-up when I got back incl replacement of the AC/fan/alt belts. Squeal started last week when I had to hard-jump my old car and has happened since. Usually for a few sec @ start-up, almost always when the engine's cold. Belts are new, tension is correct. Last night, started squealing every time I'd come off the brake and on to the accelerator, stoplight to stoplight on the way home, only for a few sec. It's not the fan, I'd hear it constantly. It's not the AC, I checked to make sure. TB/WP aren't due yet but were replaced in 2008. Alt belt? Why? Oh, and power steering is fine as well, full and no leaks.

Thanks in advance.
 
Check the tension again. The belts can stretch a little. Even if the timing belt was loose, it wouldn't squeal. It would make a flapping noise in the timing cover.
 
Thanks, will do. Part of this is the weather - it's -10 with the wind chill today, and the fact that my 14 y/o V6 stars without hesitation is pretty awesome. Pretty sure it's the alt belt, friend says the belts will sometimes take a couple of weeks to break in. I can shut up and wait.
 
trovergraywilson said:
Thanks, will do. Part of this is the weather - it's -10 with the wind chill today, and the fact that my 14 y/o V6 stars without hesitation is pretty awesome. Pretty sure it's the alt belt, friend says the belts will sometimes take a couple of weeks to break in. I can shut up and wait.
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Were you ever able to figure out this issue? I'm in a very similar situation.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
nwebb01 said:
Were you ever able to figure out this issue? I'm in a very similar situation.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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[MENTION=156350]nwebb01[/MENTION], yeah actually. Figured out that the belts I had were Dayco, an old OEM supplier but less-than-great. I ended up switching them out with Mistuboshi, easy to order from Advance Auto and like ~$7 each. All better, not a single squeal since, even with Chicago temps. :happy:
 
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