Hello, this is my first post and ive been having this problem for about a month or so. I hear a very high pitched squeal when i accelerate from a stop and the sound is in sync with the RPMs. If im cruising it doesn't squeal, but when i tap the gas it squeals. I've replaced all the idler pulleys as well. Any suggestions on what this could be?

 

you've replaced your belts? I've had this issue with even a new belt and even a new idler pulley. Test with belt dressing but only as s means if a tool to find out where the squeak is, not add a bandaid.

 

Ive replaced the belt twice. Right now i have a dayco and ive put a decent amount of miles on it so far. The first time i replaced the belt, something was rubbing against the top of the belt but after i replaced the idler pulleys, the belt was fine.

 

try a mechanics stethascope https://m.harborfreight.com/mechanic....google.com%2F

 

It only squeals whem I'm actually driving. I never hear the squeal when idling or revving in park.

 

bearings do not only show signs of wear when under a load. Look up youtube videos. But you'll hear where they sound like they are crunching, load or no load. Hope that helps

 

If you reused your belt, that could be it.


But, I’d be leaning towards a belt tensioner giving up the ghost.

 

I forgot to mention that i replaced the belt tensioner and then got a new belt after the tensioner.

 

Go to a parking lot and spray some water on the belts, and pulleys, and drive it and see if it still makes the noise. Also recheck all the bolts for the pulleys, and tighten them to spec. Also have the car running and look at the belt make sure that it is not moving side to side, and moving straight smoothly. I switched mine with continental serpentine belt, and I did not have a issue, so it could just be the belt.

 

Did you have the same problem before switching to the continental belt?

 

I did not I just changed it, because I don't think the previous owner did and I had about 80k miles. Rather change it early, then to have it snap on me and mess more items in the engine bay, or even worst get tangled up in the pulley.

 

To anyone else reading this, I had the same issue with my car and was finally able to fix it.

I literally just got a bottle of engine degreaser, sprayed some by the front of the engine above the belts and pulleys, let it sit for about a minute, rinsed it off with low pressure water and dried it with the blow dryer at my local self service car wash.

Its been over a week and the squeak during cold starts as well as the squeal at 3500RPM has gone away & never came back.

This was driving me nuts because I already tried everything OP had mentioned at first.
New Belt, New Idler Pulleys, New Tensioner, all OEM and torqued to the proper spec per the owners manual, all of which did nothing to change the squeak.

I guess we sometimes forget that these cars are getting up there in age and something as simple as a dirty engine could lead to grime/oil on the crank or AC pulley & cause weird noises that are hard to diagnose lmao.

OP if you’re still active here, try cleaning the front of the engine with degreaser (I like Griot’s Garage engine cleaner because it’s safe for rubber & plastics) and some low pressure water