Ok guys, That notorious Gs400 squeal is back. I had my car in the cold garage for two weeks. I started her up, and she purred fine. 15 seconds later, I here the squealing pig sound. I've pinponted where the noise is coming from. It is definetley the uper pulley just below the air intake tube. Wd40, lithium grease, belt dressing are temporary fixes that last one day. I think I will have to buy a new pulley. Any recommendations as to where I can get a new pulley? Is there another remedy to solve this problem? Let me know guys.

 

My wife's RX used squeal in the cold on first start up. Belt adjustment cured that, over time belt had streched and the cold temps exaggerated it. Not sure if the pulley you're referring to is just an idler pulley or is if it's attached to something but alternator bearings can squeal for a short while in cold temps, especially on high mileage cars.

 

I suspect you have already replaced the belt and tightened it correctly. Pulleys rarely need replacing, unlike what the pulley drives. Take the belt loose and check for binds on what it drives.

 

The gs400 has no belt adjustment. It is the upper most pulley under the hood. When I spary wd40 on it while the car is runing during warmup, it will disappear. After the car idles for abot 3 minutes, it goes away by itself. The car has no other mecanical issues and was dealer maintained. Last year I took it to my dealer and had them keep it over night to pinpoint the problem (got a Rx330 loaner). The next day I got a call from the dealer and they told me it is a common problem. The tech put some red jelly substance on the belt to cure the problem. It was only a temporay fix. Here I am again with the same problem.

 

Huh? It's has to have, otherwise how does one change the belt.

 

Its self adjusting for the GS4. It says it under the hood. The dealer replace the belt for me last year and, I even had the dealer put in a belt made by Continental. Thought that would solve it, but the squeal still occured. The new Toyota belt is on there now, and it still squeals.. This only happens in the winter when temperature is below 32 degrees.

 

Okay, I understand now. The self tensioners I've seen on other vehicles are spring loaded, it could be that spring is weak and the cold temps are just compounding the problem. Then again the dealer may be correct, it's a known problem and we'll just have to live with it during the winter and grease it up every few weeks.

 

i think its ur pretensioner puller...spring is worn out

 

Where is the spring located?

 

u have to take off the self pretensioner puller to get to the spring

 

Is the spring built into the pulley, and would I need to buy a new pulley? Is the pretensioner pulley the top pulley I described?

 

Your right. I just called the parts dept at my dealer. They said that is a common problem and that it is the bearing going bad in the tensioner pulley. The only remedy is to replace it.. it is a $80.87 part. Going in on Saturday to get it replaced.

 

so what happened? I am having a belt squeek aswell. I thought(hoped) it was the belt. I went and bought a new belt, when I took off the old belt, I spun the tensioner pulley and sure enough the bearing sounds like sh#t. I didn't even bother to put on the new belt.

so was $80 for the entire belt tensioner assembly?

 

dude your cars just freakin pissed off it has to deal with this weather..my gs is too. every day i get into it it curses me out for putting snow tires on it instead of driving the crappy honda i used to use every winter when it got disgusting out..now i use the gs all year and trust me, shes a cranky little *****.