High pitched squeal while coasting

SOURCE: High Pitch whine during acceleration

Hi Pullerwife,

I have a few suggestions for you,

First of all, check your air filter, make sure its clean, not clogged, and doesn't need to be changed.

I don't know how handy you are, but if you are fairly handy, check the idler pulley bearings, if your not, have a shop check it out, as a last resort.

Power steering pump/fluid being low is also a possibility, but thats usually more of a lower pitched whine then what you describe.

You say once the vehicle is warmed up, the whining stops. Does Weather seem to be a factor as well?

Hope I've helped, and don't forget to rate.

Lazaruselite

SOURCE: 2003 Lancer ES High pitch squeal and constant squeak

Shortly after replacing the serpentine belt in my lancer, the same thing happened. It is NOT the timing belt. Belts squeal when they slip. If your timing belt slipped it would cause your car to run funny.

have somebody check the belt for wear (or do it yourself), replace if necessary. If it doesn't need replacement, just tighten it.

If you have the 4cyl engine that I have, the tightening is kind of a pain in the ****. Not a great design by mitsubishi. There's a pulley near the front right corner of the engine in front of the alternator. the belt should be running around this pulley GROOVE SIDE OUT. This is the tension pulley.

To tighten:
1) Lightly loosen the bolt in the center of the pulley (slightly loosen, DO NOT REMOVE).
2) Under that pulley there's another bolt. You can see that the bolt goes through a piece of metal
attached to the back of the pulley. Figure out which way you need to turn the bolt to move the
pulley toward the front of the car. (i don't remember if it's right hand thread, or left hand) This
puts extra tension on the belt. You probably don't need much. Over tensioning the belt can
cause pulley bearing failure. If you haven't done this work before, ask someone for
help. It's better to tighten a little bit, a few times rather than overtighten once.
3) Don't forget to ReTighten the bolt in the center of the pulley.

If there's lots of cracks and pieces missing on the ribs or grooves of the belt you should replace it first.

Happy repairing,
Cliff

SOURCE: how do I release the belt tension pully to replace serpentine belt

You can run down to your local auto parts store and buy a serp belt tool. Or you can take a 3/8 drive ratchet, locate the 3/8 square hole in your tensioner and put the ratchet in the hole. For more leverage I put a deep socket over the ratchet handle and put a long 3/8 extention in the deep socket. This will provide ample leverage and will save buying more tools you do not need. Simply move the tensioner to the direction that takes pressure off of the belt.

SOURCE: My Serpentine belt is squealing above idle

first thing you need to do is get a new belt that belt dressing just destroyed that belt that stuff is no good then get a new belt tensioner clean all the pullys with some brake clean then install the belt tensioner and belt if its still sqealing there maybe a pully making the noise to check that when you have the belt off spin them by hand and listen to them and feel for any play in the bearings

SOURCE: Squeal under hood 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GT (3.8 L)

I would start with a belt. While removing it feel how much tension the tensioner has on it, on the 3800 egnine they have a stiff tensioner(sorry I don't have any specs for how much) After you get the belt off you can look at all of the pulleys and spin them to see if the bind or look for stuff stuck in the grooves on the pulleys.
It sounds to me like the belt is streched. I would not recommend one of those gator back belts, they seem to make more noise sooner than a good v notch belt. But thats just my opinion!