Squealing on startup

[Kyser]

This squelling at startup is really getting on my last nerve. I have a 90 Tsi Awd that usually just squells a little bit on startup but depending on the humity, temp, or anything else it feels like acting up on it will just squell and squell and squell. Ive replaced both the power steering and alt. belts and while it helped for all of a week its back and annoying as ever. Does anyone know a way to permantly fix this?

This is also my second Alt. belt, after I replaced the first one the new one lasted all of a month and half or so. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Quasimondo]

Check your tension, and check to see if your crank pulley isn't on it's last legs.

 

[Korndogg]

do you have an AC belt also?
if not, sounds like the crank pulley is seperating to me...

 

[Kyser]

AC is disconnected, so I should check my crank pully? My brother prolly knows but which one is that?

Thanks

 

[Korndogg]

the crank pulley is the pulley which is on the crankshaft at the bottom of the engine

there's a harmonic balancer in the pulley, which is basically just a hard piece of rubber between 2 pieces of metal... sorta like a donut kinda... the inside of the pulley is metal and mounted to the crankshaft.. then there's an outside metal piece which the belts run off of... between those 2 peices of metal is a piece of rubber.

if either piece of metal starts to pull away from the rubber, the pulley will soon seperate and like fall into 2 pieces and your car will be rather disabled...

not too hard to change though

 

[Mike1992]

New belts stretch, retension them. Your car may be like mine and need retensioning on the alternator every month :thumbdown

 

[91awd]

Mine is doing the same thing I have new belts and they are tight enough but not too tight but it squeals when I start it and sometimes when I start off while driving. It's really annoying. So I guess I will check the marmonic balancer but I don't see how that will cause a squeal because I have seen them break before and never heard them squealing.

 

[Kyser]

Thats what im wondering, why would this cause the squelling? I mean usually its just for a few secs on startup and then sometimes for a good long time, this just boggles me!

 

[CarsonNitely]

i had that problem and it was my alt. belt too

 

[Mike1992]

Belt tension, and the pulleys are important.

When was the last time you replaced the Pulleys for the belts? The Pulleys are probably no longer grabbing anymore, and you just end up stretching the crap out of the belt trying to get the squeel to stop.

I have unorthadox crank and water pump pulley's. I think theyre to slick to grab well. I have to retighten the alt. tensioner every month or so.

 

[Kyser]

So where is a good place to find the pullys? Should I just call napa or what, and any clue on how much to expect to pay?

 

[Gen1boost]

I am getting the same squeeling noise, if you get this fixed please give me a pm.

 

[exzercist]

i get the same thing on my 2g all the belts are tight and it squels on startup for a sec but never at that. my crank pully is all metal and has no rubber so its bnot that. im really stating to think that its my power steering pump bearings or my alternator.

 

[Dsmer_95tsi]

i would check and see if your water pump is catching"which means its about to die" if that doesn't work, check and see if there is any where on the edges of the belts. i would check to make sure your power steering pump is in line, i burned off 2 sets of belts before i realized that my power steering pump was off alignment. it only takes a couple of mm.

 

[JapspeedUK]

Hi.

I had the same problem for a couple of weeks, with sometimes a smell of burning rubber, the squeeling and sometimes ticking noise is where the rubber has come away from one of the metel rings its between and is basically wheel spinning, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, after approx two weeks the whole thing gave up and the outer bit of the pulley came clean away and wedged by my chassis arm and timing belt cover and knocking all my belts off (A/C, Alt and power steering) hence totally disabled, lucky I WAS NOT AT SPEED AND HAD JUST STARTED THE ENGINE AT IDLE!! Cos it nearly cut through the timing belt cover which could have been real bad!!

I'd really look at replacing it for the sake of a few dollars, it cost me $190.00 but I'm stuck in the UK where we get ripped off!!

I did not bother putting my A/C belt back on as I never us it (to cold here !) will this cause any problems now or later? does it release any BHP not having it on?

 

[Quasimondo]

Not having the a/c belt on won't cause any problems. The only time you have parasitic loss with the a/c is when it's actually running and the motor is driving the compressor. otherwise, when the a/c is off and the compressor is disengaged, the wheel will spin freely like an adler wheel, so to speak.

 

[exzercist]

i replaced all belts and my water pump still has squeel. but my powersteeering might be off but theres no way to align it is there. its basically tighten the bolts right?

 

[nrgarrett]

I own/drive a 95' Talon TSI FWD.

I went through 3 belts, and finally changed out my alternator. While doing so, I replaced the crankshaft pulley with a lightened aftermarket pulley. When I performed the swap, I left the a/c belt off. So, now I have a new 90 amp Alternator, billet aluminum crank shaft pulley, and a new belt. Did this fix the problem? Nope!

In the midst of this, I also installed a stage 3 clutch, refinished flywheel, and replaced my manual tranny fluid with redline. Keep in mind that because I am breaking in my clutch, I am only boosting at 11 psi, and most of the time babying my take offs.

The first 20+ miles were fine, then everytime I would take off from a stop, it would squeal a little; Next stop a little more, till it would squeal almost all the time.

At around 125 miles, I tightened the belt thinking, since it was new, the belt was stretching out abit. Drove about 10 miles to test. Worked fine.

Got up the next morning to go to work, and it started squealing when taking off from a stop.

If I am in low rpms, it seems to not sqeal. When I down shift, it screams at me. So, I don't down shift now. ...

Hhhhmmmm... How do you know when tightening is too tight. I don't want to replace the alternator again from overtightening! ...And has anyone found a cure yet?

 

[nrgarrett]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I fixed my problem. I replaced both the Alternator belt, and the powersteering/waterpump belt. I haven't had a problem since. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

When changing the belts, I did 3 things:

1. Cleaned pulleys with brake cleaner and brush.

2. Took off rear most mounting bolt for the power steering pump bracket. It was rubbing on the pulley.

3. I clipped the tensioner bolt for the alternator, it was dangerously close to the power steering pulley... (I actually had rub marks on the power steering belt)

Hope this helps someone/everyone...

-Nrgarrett

 

[mkalters]

This squelling at startup is really getting on my last nerve. I have a 90 Tsi Awd that usually just squells a little bit on startup but depending on the humity, temp, or anything else it feels like acting up on it will just squell and squell and squell. Ive replaced both the power steering and alt. belts and while it helped for all of a week its back and annoying as ever. Does anyone know a way to permantly fix this?

This is also my second Alt. belt, after I replaced the first one the new one lasted all of a month and half or so. Any help would be appreciated!

My car did the same thing this is what I finally figured out.Well I took it to the 3rd mechanic and he says that the cam gaskets are shot and it is leaking oil and that probably is getting onto the belts causing them to slip. Any way he charged me $90 ( which really chaffs me cause he said $40 an hour on the phone and he said $60 an hour when I went to pick up the car.) to tell me that.So I am done with the car I put another new alternator on it advance gave me it cause the original one I got from them quit. It seems like it is running ok so I am gonna sell it and get a newer car.