I've had to jump start my car a couple of times after it has sat for a few days. I just jumped it after it sat four days. Now I hear a squealing at the very front of the engine on the passenger side. The car didn't run as smooth as it normally does, either. Is that the alternator?

 

My instinct tells me a misalignment or squeaking of a drive belt. It may be totally unrelated to the battery power you had to struggle with lately. I'm moving this to the Maintenance forum, so hopefully someone more tech-minded there can chime in

 

i believe there are bearings inside the alternator. if those are badm that could be the swueak.

has the main belt ever been changed?

 

If you want to be sure its the belt or not, spray a small amount of wd40 onto the belt itself... if the squeeling goes away, you need a new belt If not, it could be a bad bearing in the alternator or A/c compressor...

 

Thanks for the replies.

Have never changed the main drive belt. The car has around 53K on it.

I'll spray a little WD40 on the belt to see if that helps. Please define 'a little' WD40. Do I spray the inside of the belt that contacts the pulleys?

 

Ahhh, I have to disagree here, a squeaking belt is a symptom of belt slippage. Putting Wd40 on it will only make the problem worse if it is slipping. Go to the autoparts store and get some belt dressing, this product is designed to silence squeaky belsts, you may also want to just try and tighten the belt up.

 

Would this alternator or belt sqeak cause the battery to drain when the car sits for several days? Or do I have two problems?

 

It can, if the belt is slipping badly, then the alternator may not be spinning fast enough to charge the battery fully/properly. If so then the battery could be in a constant state of undercharge. If the car sits for a while then the little charge it did have could dissapate.

 

Bingo, especially with your Security system on even when the car is off. that only takes a neglidgable amount of batt power, but still its enough when the batt isnt fully recharging.

 

the wd40 is not to cure the problem, it is to see if the belt is the thing making the noise. however, ive used wd40 hundreds of times to silence a squeeling belt. it works awesome for about 5-10k miles... It actually doesnt make the belt slip, it softens the rubber of the belt, and it actually grips more... hard to understand, but real work use has shown that it works...

 

I concur with the wd40 for detecting a bad belt. I have actually just trickled a little water on each belt one at a time. If it is a bad belt, the spueal will go away as soon as you add water and then gradually come back as the water dries.

steviej

 

Does the car have an alternator and a regulator? Or is that the same part? The part that sqeals has a label 'Regulator'.

 

If the OE alt is still there, it should say IC REGULATOR BUILT IN TOYOTA ND DENSO on the label.