Timing Belts Extreme Squeaking Noise

[polvadis]

I've had my '02 4Runner for 4 years now, and it's been running great. Had my timing belt and other 90,000 mile services done at about 95,000 miles. I'm at 125,000 now and the timing belt is really squeaky literally every time I start the car.

Now, there's a little catch to this. I recently moved from sunny Southern California to very wet Poland in Eastern Europe, and have shipped my 4Runner along with me. The squeaky belt wasn't a problem 4 weeks ago in Los Angeles, it just became a nuisance now in Poland. Could the colder, wetter, climate have anything to do with that? Or perhaps some salt buildup from a 3 week stay in a shipping container?

How do I get it to stop squeaking every time I start the car? It really sounds terrible; a sound I would sometimes hear if I hit a major water puddle back in L.A., but never every single time I started the car.

Please help.

Thanks,-Slav.

PS. It cost me $100 dollars to fill up the gas tank here in Europe. Gas prices are crazy here.

 

[Elton H]

the t belt is pretty much covered up from any water sounds like your drive belts if there too loose they make a hell of a noise

 

[brian2sun]

The timing belt also has teeth on it so it doesn't slip like a drive belt will. It could be a tensioner/pulley going out or a different belt like Elton said.

 

[Elton H]

or maybe its the water pump lets hope not but im still leaning towards the belts cause when i put new ones on they loosened up some and would squeal on start up

 

[polvadis]

So it's not a timing belt, but might be another belt instead? I've replaced the water pump at 95k miles also, so hopefully it's not that.

 

[Elton H]

im still gonna say its the drive belts

 

[polvadis]

Had a chance to look under the hood today since the weather cleaned up a little. What I saw was not good. For some reason the pulley is extremely rusted. I'm sure that's the reason for the noise.

But why did it rust? Shipping container salt? Water pump failure? And how do I fix it now is even a bigger issue.