Squeaking and screeching nosies while in drive.

[Suliman]

Hey guys,
First post on the forums so go easy on me. I’ve recently noticed a weird squeaking/screeching noise coming from the front of the car. The car seems to be fine while it’s in park but when I put it in drive, it starts making those sounds. The noises seem to go away as I step on the accelerator and speed up, or the acceleration could just be masking the noises. Checked all the basic fluids and everything checked out fine.

Car’s a 99 Altima 2.4 GLE automatic with about 180K miles on it.

Topic

[Josh]

I would check your belts. I hear a lot of that when belts need to be replaced. If you can, take the belt off and check the pulleys to hear if its the pulleys or not. When checking the belt your looking for cracks and dry rot. Hope this helps you

[college man]

You either have brake problems or a wheel bearing going bad.
jack up the front end and spin each wheel to see if the noise is there.
when the noise is heard is your foot on the brakes? It also may be time
for brakes and the squealer is letting you know.

[Suliman]

Thanks for the response, guys. The noise is the loudest when the car is stopped but in drive, meaning the brakes are applied fully. When I shift it into park – the noise goes away. It sounds like it’s coming from under the hood so don’t think it’s the wheels or brakes. The belt seemed fine.

[college man]

from what I see from the service manual.your engine has two
belts. remove the ac belt and see if the noise goes away.
if it does go away look at the idler pulley or the ac.if
this test shows negative. what you could do is have someone
start the car.put the emergency brake on.Have someone put it
in gear and listen for the noise with the hood open.use a long
screw driver to your ear to try and find the noise.

[dave]

make sure there are no pedestrians standing directly in front of the vehicle while it’s in drive.

[clay rutledge]

putting my money on worn or loose belts

[Suliman]

Belts look fine but I’ll have to get it looked at in a shop. Weather’s been brutal here so can’t do much outdoors.

[twiggy]

Sounds like low atf fluid. Check the level.

[celticbhoy]

Sounds like the windshield wiper blades.

In all seriousness, one thing you could do to eliminate the AC belt as a problem is go through the different fan levels (low, medium, high, off). If the noise is still there when it’s off then it’s not the AC but if it is there, or if it gets louder when you go from low to medium, then it most likely has something to do with the AC system . My car has this exact problem and by doing this I found it is the AC belt.

[Suliman]

ATF levels turned out to be normal and the fluid was still in pretty good shape. The strange thing is that the noise has dramatically decreased now and at times it’s completely gone. I have a feeling that there was some fluid leaking from a reservoirs (most likely power steering as the reservoir level was lower than normal) and it got on the belts, causing the noise. I’m still gonna take it in to the shop just to make sure it’s nothing serious.

[college man]

keep us posted on your findings.

[Josh]

my buddy who has a 97 honda; when his belts squeeled he just used wd-40 on them and it worked.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The easiest way to find out if it’s the belt(s) is to remove them one at a time, start the vehicle, put it in drive, and listen for the noise. If the noise is gone when you do this then you’ve found the problem. If not then you know you need to keep looking. Keep us posted.

[Author]

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