Car is a 94 Sc300, I get a chirping/squeaking sound coming from somewhere up front in the serpentine belt area. Sound is not audible until some sort of load is placed on the car (If I have the air on and put it in Drive, or going in reverse, mostly with the air on at a stop)
I've put a whole new serpentine belt and belt tensioner on w/ pulley, and I tried replacing the clutch fan w/ another even though the one on the car looks brand new. What could cause this?
Could it be the alternator going out, would it cause that kind of a sound ??

 

does it kinda sound like an elephant, if so then it's probably your harmonic balancer (crank pulley)..that happened to me to until i changed the pulley...

 

Describe the sound of an elephant, sounds a little like metal on metal contact, or like chirping.

How hard was the crank pulley to change out???

 

Yeah, mine made that sound, crank pulley was on its way out. Its not hard to do but you do need a bigass breaker bar. Take out the radiator, fan shroud, fan, and serpentine belt and then search for how to use the starter trick to get the bolt off. you'll probably need the pulley puller from autozone too, only $15.

 

extremly easy...just take off the fan, serpentine belt, then put the right size socket w/ the rachet, then put the 2-3 feet breaker bar through the rachet and lean it either against the battery or the ground..unplug the single coil so that the engine won't start..then go inside your car and crank it up a couple of times then it should come right off...

 

sounds like the crank bolt is the hardest part, then get a pulley puller take the pulley off and put the new one on, I don't have to mess with the timing belt or anything getting out of wack then? Just pull replace and torque back on?

 

could also be one of the idler pulleys too...

 

As far as I see there is only 1 idler pulley on the 300, and the whole tensioner unit with brand new pulley on it has been replaced.

 

Its the cranshaft pulley, I don't think an idler pulley would be making that kind of noise, I bet once you get your belt off you can almost pull the cranshaft pulley apart with your hands.

No messing with the timing belt, just the crankshaft bolt and your done. The starter trick is real easy to do if you have a breaker bar. You'll probably have to buy a big socket though, 21 or 22mm. Can't remember which one.

 

what side does the breaker bar go on when doing the starter trick? Driver side, and set ratchet to loosen??

 

well it looks like its the a/c compressor, I will know for sure once I change it out. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Chirping and squeeking has always been a water pump for me. Except the time it was a V belt. Oops, did I date myself?

John

 

I still feel likes its the crank pulley, however I took the car into fletcher's to see what they thought. They said its the a/c compressor, they said when there's a real heavy load/cranking the a/c the squeaking/chirping sound intensifies and starts to howl.

Only reason I think its the crank pulley is because right when you turn the car on it makes a quick little squeak almost sounds like a whistle, and Im not sure how the a/c compressor would cause that.

 

Mine was when the car started and occasionally when I was downshifting hard which would indicate that the crank pulley was slipping. I thought it was my A/C clutch because it would make the noise when I engaged the A/C occasionally, but it was just the quick load on the pulley that made it slip again.

If you search for crank pulley you'll actually find this happens to a lot of people. I got mine used for $75 (good condition one, it still had black paint on it, no rust anywhere). I'd try to fix that first, its a lot easier than the A/C compressor and you can probably do it yourself.

 

could quite possibly just be the clutch on the front of the a/c compressor...

thats still a rough one to diagnose with the belt still on... you'll find it much easier to find the problem if you simply pull the belt off and re check...