High pitched squeal noise on cold start

[Fahad]

Greetings everyone, I’m new here and I would like your help to identify the main culprit. P;

Car: 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer GL 1.3L Automatic.

Problem: Every morning after a night sitting still, when I start the engine (AC not ON), over 9000 pig birds are released with a violent roar that almost can shatter any glass, it lasts for about 8 ~ 10 seconds and goes away,does not occur later on if I start the car when it’s warm already.

Here’s a video I found on youtube that shows the problem, the same issue as mine but the solution the guy tried isn’t applicable for my car due reasons I’ll mention later.

History when it started:
One day I was driving on the highway when the car raised temperature and I had to stop and let it cool down.
Short story ended in a local garage for it to have the following parts replaced (Genuine OEM parts):

1145A051 Timing Belt
MD356509 Tensioner Pulley
4451A098 Alternator Belt
MD375935 V-Ribbed Belts
MD977528 Engine Overhaul Gasket kit
MD360935 Oil Filter
MS851357 Spark Plug (4x)
M2320113 Engine oil

Turns out later that the radiator cap bottom deteriorated which caused this misfortune, something little as that I overlooked caused so much problems and I learned my lesson and replaced the cap.

After the fix at the local garage, the car performed fine and it idles well except for one last detail which is the morning cold start squeal that lasts for 10 seconds.
I have and obviously returned to the local garage about 4 times, all what have they done is tighten the belts, it did not work and just told me that its normal and I shouldn’t be worried about it but its driving me pineapples each time I hear it.

Other symptom’s noticed:
– A 20% chance when gear is engaged in D or R and the car isn’t moving, a small chirping noise can be heard coming from the engine compartment, can be a little bit louder if AC is turned on.
– If AC is ON and car is a little bit tilted to uphill or downhill, a rattle noise that sounds like some truck can be heard, however I expect it could be the heat shield.

More info:
I live in Sultanate of Oman – Muscat, temperature at 11 AM is about 35 Celsius (95 F).
I was planning to use belt dressing but then I changed my mind due how messy it will be and it isn’t a genuine fix. I was also going to use WD-40 on the alternator pulley sincein WD-40 website it says that WD-40 can treat alternator pulley squeak but I didn’t. http://wd40.com/uses-tips/

Also a couple questions I would like to ask are:
1- What is the difference between cold start and warm start, why is it only squealing on cold starts?
2- Can power steering fluid relate to any squealing?

My apologies for the very long post, I’m trying to provide every small clue I can think of.

Topic

[college man]

sounds like belt squeal. Don’t use any dressings or wd 40.
Can you have someone start the car while you check what belt
is squealing? The difference between a cold start and warm start
is a cold start is when its sat over night or the engine is cold.
A warm start is when the engine has been ran shut off and restarted.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

[Fahad]

Sure thing college man. It’s night time right but I’ll have someone tomorrow help me check which belt is making noise and maybe we will take a video of it….hopefully it doesn’t snap off and crashes the camera or me D;

[Fahad]

Here is a quick video I took a while ago

That noise just makes it a lot harder to concentrate where it exactly comes from, however it seems to be the serpentine belt,the closest one to me. I’m a software engineering student and I don’t have much experience when it comes to car components. =/

[Gumpy Guss]

No, no, no, no, no. Use WD-40 on, well, hmm, I can’t think of anything that will benefit from some smelly thin oil.

Oil on a bealt is usually a bad idea. The only way WD-40 could improve a belt is if it happens to be glazed and the oil just softens the belt without actually lubricating it.

The squeal on startup is probably caused by the alternator trying to recharge the car battery. On cars with the old analog ammeters, you’d see the needle go over to like 20 amps charging for like 30 seconds. That compensates for the like 200 amps for 3 seconds that the starter drew out. Those two have to balance out. Nowdays with cars with computers, there also is a bit of overnight parasitic drain that also has to be recovered from.

One slight possibility is that you have excess overnight parasitic drain, like from an added on security system or amplifier. These will draw a few tens to a few hundred milliamps, which adds up over time. 100 milliamps for 12 hours is 1.2 amps for an hour, or on the alternator’s scale, say 12 amps for 6 minutes, or 72 amps for 1 minute which is a LOT of drag on the pulley.

You may need a new pulley, or on the old days we would take a grinding wheel and rough up the pulley flanges so they weren’t so dang polished smooth, but that’s a 30 second job instead of a 1 hour flat rate plus 100% $24 pulley part markup.

It’s also possible that the belt is getting contaminated– check for oil leaks from like the power steering pump or transmission cooling lines or even from the radiator overflow tube.

I would put my money on the belt being a bit looser than optimum or a pulley that is polished to way too fine a shine.

[Fahad]

I just came back from a short night ride and I made a couple new little discoveries:
After taking off and once braking for the nearby road bump, I had the urge to lift all 4 electric window handles so I did it, and the squeal CAME BACK but was gone as soon as I released the handles,mind that the AC was on and fan on Lvl 1.
However, once the car is warm after a while, this does not happen anymore no matter how many times I try it.

The 2nd discovery is that, when headlights are ON, if I lift all the electric window handles, I notice that the front headlights get about 5% dimmer until I release the handles, they get back to normal.

I will take grg88 input into consideration as it gave me some insight and a new path to look into.

[Blake]

Id say this issue is with your alternator, my friends 350z has this same issue and it is his alternator. Probably the bearings in it are going out or the draw on it is so large that the belt is slipping like Grg88 said.

[Gumpy Guss]

yeah, the rule is that Conservation of Energy is always in play, so when you have four little motors trying to put out 10-foot-pounds of torque, the same amount of torque has to be borrowed from the electrical system and eventually from the alternator and the engine.

You either have a loose or glazed belt, or a very shiny alternator pulley.

The simplest thing you could try is to take some #80 sandpaper, or better yet crocus cloth, fold it in a narrow and long strip, just like the guys do with dollar bills at the strip clubs (so I hear), and use the long strip like it was a show buffing cloth, only your goal is to buff in some scratches into the pulley, not buff in a shine onto your army boots. You want the scratches to not go around the pulley,. but more radially, from the center outwards. This takes a while as you want to hit all sides and all the grooves in the pulley. This has solved squealing pulley for me many a time. Don’t try to use the folded paper at the Mr. Mojo’s. You will get more squeals, not fewer.

[Bill]

Well…This gives me the idea that the alternator belt is the culprit. As soon as you load the battery by using accessories the alternator has to work harder causing the belt to slip and squeal.

If the alternator belt is tight you may need to replace it again. Once they start to slip they get hot and this causes the belt to get hard and glazed and will never grip the pulleys again.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Based on your very detailed description I believe I have a theory for you. Since you brought it back to the place that did the belt work and they were not able to fix the problem, I don’t believe it has anything to do with the drive belt. I do however think that the alternator pulley may be at fault. Many late model vehicles use a clutch type pulley for the alternator. This helps save fuel and provide more usable power for the engine, but when it fails it can produce symptoms similar to what you describe. If you do not have one of these pulleys, I might still suspect the alternator. Perhaps there is some internal failure such as a bad bearing or something that’s causing the noise. These videos may also offer some insight.

Keep us posted on what you find.

[Fahad]

Thank you all for the useful comments.

I had some free time yesterday so I took the car to a near by Automotive Electrician and as soon as I showed him the video on my phone, he seem to have knew the main culprit as I described him the car history.
He told me that the symptom is commonly related to car’s alternator belt and that it makes that squeal noise when its not “properly” tensioned.

He only took a couple minutes to re-tension it properly and asked me to see if the sound will come back on the next cold start but he doubted that would happen.

So, the next cold start is today and I was skeptical but surprisingly it did not make any squealing noise, not even a little, no chirps either and the other symptom’s seem to have diminished as well.

I’m very happy with the initial result but I’m still doubtful about the long run and if it may come back after a couple weeks or so.

But so far so good, thank you all for the incredibly useful comments, I will keep you all posted in case the issue comes back. 😉

[Brendan]

Sir,
I’ve read your posts about your morning squealing noise. I have the same problem with my infiniti G35 and it is both annoying and embarassing when I start my car in a crowded parking lot. I’ve replaced my alternator already and completed multiple belt-related checks to try and fix the problem. Still, I can’t find out the root of the cause.

I had never considered taking the battery’s power and parasitic drain to be the culprit, and now I have something new to look into.

My question for you is this: Were you ever able to fix that 10 second High pitched screaming banshee noise? If so, how did you do it?

Share your knowledge and I’ll be forever in your debt,
Regards,
Brendan

[Rembert te Loo]

To add for those also searching for a solution for this,

I had the morning squeal, and it would be louder when I turned my lights on. And be gone some 20 seconds later.
I also determined it must be the belt squealing due to the alternator working harder after starting to recharge the battery.
With a hot engine, or better said not to long after stopping the engine, there was no squeal, since the battery was probably not drained that much yet. (No parasitic discharge, and shorter starting). Nothing to do with the engine temperature being hot.

After some more logical thinking, I finally inspected and found the issue to be a corroded earth strap between engine and chassis/body. So the alternator was always working harder to overcome the voltage drop to keep the correct charging voltage at the battery. One clue leading to me finding this was that the headlights would be dimmer at idle, and normal at 2000 rpm.
The corrosion wasn’t bad enough, that the alternator could not recharge whilst driving, but it would have not lasted much longer. The strap had probably a voltage drop of several Volts.

Checking the squeal, not the sepentine belt, but hard working alternator due to corroded ground straps.

[Author]

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