I am getting a squeaking when turning?

Tiny
ARIESRAM57
  • MEMBER
  • 2005 HYUNDAI ELANTRA
  • 162,000 MILES
My 2005 Elantra GT squeaks when I first start it in the morning, I turn left and right and it squeaks, I drive on the freeway and it squeaks. I replace all the belts and the powesteering belt twice. The squeak stop when I turn off the fan on the heater and it starts for a few seconds and stops. Could u please answer my questions with your expert advice? The expert that replied to me the first time said to check my oil level and its good. Hmmmm, Oil level? Tanks for your time. Sincerely, Thomas Almeida
Friday, December 16th, 2011 AT 8:02 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,737 POSTS
You know we can't hear this over a computer. You're going to have to search for this yourself. We can help with suggestions but we would have to have way more details or observations. Turning the steering wheel, turning off the heater fan, and driving at different speeds are good observations but they don't have anything in common. If you took the car to a mechanic, the first thing he would do is ask you a bunch of questions, just like a doctor would do if you told him you "don't feel well".

If the noise occurs only when you have the heater set to "defrost", you might be hearing the AC compressor clutch since the AC runs in defrost mode. A misaligned pulley will cause the belt to slide across it as it goes around it, and that will cause a miserable squeak. 1/16" misalignment is severe and no new belt will solve that. Turning the steering system puts added strain on the power steering pump and could cause a belt to squeal if it's loose. A weak or rusted-tight spring-loaded belt tensioner will let the belt squeal.

There is a tool you might be able to borrow or rent from an auto parts store that borrows them called the "Chassis Ear". It is a set of six microphones, a switch box, and headphones. You clip the microphones to suspect points, then drive around while listening with the headphones. You can move the microphones around to zero in on the source of the noise. Be aware that many mechanics have never seen or even heard of this tool. Suspension and alignment mechanics use it to find rattles, squeaks, and other noises.
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Friday, December 16th, 2011 AT 8:19 PM
Tiny
JAFER
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
Hello airiesram57

You have no problem, only v belts make squeaks, so you have to change the 3 v belts with new. Thank you answered by jafer a member on 2carpros
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Friday, December 16th, 2011 AT 9:12 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,737 POSTS
Sorry jafer, you have that backward. V-belts will squeal when they're loose. They have to be forced to wedge down into the grooves to grip the sides of the pulleys. When they're loose, they won't do that, and when they're worn so thin that the bottom of the belt rides on the flat center part of the pulley, they'll slide over it and squeal. They can easily tolerate pulley misalignment by a lot. Just look at the older Chryslers that used two belts side-by-side on cars with factory-installed air conditioning. They had two pulley grooves on the alternator. If you used that alternator on a car without air conditioning, only one belt was used but you could mistakenly install it in the wrong groove on that double-grooved alternator. That put the belt out-of-alignment by over an inch, ... And they would not squeal. In fact, you'd never know it was routed wrong unless you looked at it.

Serpentine belts used on all engines today are not the least bit forgiving of pulley misalignment. The ribs have very little area to grip the pulleys individually, but when they all grip together, they develop the same force as a V-belt. It's the smooth back side that squeals when it is forced to slide sideways across a smooth pulley that makes the squeal. You can verify that by lightly sprinkling a little water on the belt while the engine is idling. If the squeal changes, the belt is either loose or one pulley is out of alignment.

Chrysler had a service bulletin in the mid '90s for repositioning the alternator on their 4-cylinder engines. The modification moved it one way or the other, as needed, to the side by as little as 1/32" to eliminate the serpentine belt squeal. Their fix will real simple and effective. Ford had six different service bulletins addressing serpentine belt squeal on their trucks, and a friend who is currently a Ford mechanic said none of their fixes were effective.

Dirt on the smooth side of serpentine belts also causes squeals. At the risk of someone getting hurt or poking out an eye, we used to run the sharp end of a flat file on the belt while the engine was idling to scrape off that dirt. The powder from driving a lot on dirt roads embeds itself into the belt and reduces its gripping ability. If you saw sparks jumping off the file, those were from tiny rock granules hitting the file. Once the rock chips were knocked off the belt, the sparks would stop. That solved a lot of belt noises more like a "pinging" sound; not so much a squeal. It's also extremely important to never use any type of belt dressing to try to stop a squeal. The belt is still going to slide over a misaligned pulley, only now with greater resistance and a louder squeal, and the sticky goo with hold even more dirt to the belt and aggravate that problem.

Belt squeal with serpentine belts is a big problem. Squeals from V-belts are very rare, but they always are easy to solve. Regardless, without more details from airesram57, we don't even know if it's belt squeal we're dealing with.
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Friday, December 16th, 2011 AT 9:43 PM

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