RA40

iTrader: (6)

Ours sits most the time but today we took it for a 30 mile run. As I'm pulling into the garage with the window down I can hear a faint chirpring-squeal when in gear. When placed in neutral or park the chirping sound ceases. Sound seems to come from the front. Will have to check closer, any thoughts what this may be?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

check serpentine belt tension and the clutch fan, may be completely unrelated to the trans just more related to load on the motor.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Nagged me last night and the top idler pulley has a wee bit of wobble. Everything else felt pretty good as far as what I was bale to tug push on. When the engine had cooled some it didn't make the sound. Something I suspect when warm with load is bringing this on. Past experience with the idler is the 80-90K range the bearing is wearing.

Read other threads from forums where there was mention of water pump, motor mounts and the usual idler and tensioners.

python

iTrader: (4)

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

The chirping you're hearing is probably the bearing in the idler, once it gets bad enough to seize the belt will start slipping over the pulley.

The bearings are cheap and relatively simple to swap out, or replace the entire pulley with even less effort.


My tensioner pulley seized up about a year ago at around 180k miles.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

how many miles are on your car mike? curious to get a bigger sample of when these bearing seize. i'm almost at 170k myself. hope it's just the idler, which is a simple fix.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

205K miles. Was replaced somewhere in the 90-100K range prior. I'll dig through the past threads to find the bearing size. The last one had plenty of runout and was obvious. This one is subtle so maybe at the beginnings.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

Mine had a "bit" of run-out too...




179k mi tensioner pulley bearing failed on my '99 LS400...

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

PD that looks like the tensioner pulley.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

fixed that

RA40

iTrader: (6)

LOL. I checked it again and it spins smoothly with a bit of drag. Couldn't detect any runout. May have to look along the serpentine belt for other suspects.

python

iTrader: (4)

check the grooves of the pulleys as well as the pulleys that are smooth for residual belt material also

RA40

iTrader: (6)

This thread has similar, going to check the tensioner bearings.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...ngine-bay.html