my truck has started to squeal randomly, sometimes really loud and sometimes i can barely hear it. i pulled over and popped the hood while it was really loud and couldn't tell exactly what was making the noise. it's definitely somewhere in the belt area but not sure it's the belt itself. my co-worker thinks it's the water pump. any advice is much appreciated!

 

most information is required...

22re? 3vz?

 

Sounds like a loose belt. Tighten them up and see if it goes away. If it don't then it could be a number of things including replacing the belt(s) if needed. Not on that list would be the water pump. But depending on which engine you're talking about it could be coming from a bearing in that general area. So V6 or 4 cyl.?

 

Let me guess too.... I say tensioner.....???

What engine...year...recent work ?

One thing I would try is take off a belt and see if it stops...help eliminate
some causes.

 

sorry, it's a 94 4cyl 4x4 p-up. and yes i recently put a new alternator on it. so yeah i had to mess with one of the belts. i just ordered a new water pump anyway cuz it seams to be running a little hot lately and i've never replaced it since i bought it 6 years ago.

 

Ahhhh Haaaaaaa!!!! LOL

I bet your alt belt is loose or the new alt is losing a bushing.

 

nope, not the belt and i don't think it's the alt. (at least i hope not cuz i just replaced it last month) but i did notice a gob of grease on the engine near the top pulley. the sound is not a squeal like when a belt is squealing. it's more like a high pitched whine that gets higher in pitch with more rpms. i coun't find a diagram of the pulleys to explain better

 

The squeal is probably going to be the water pump, when i got my 4Runner it had a loud squeal also, so i replaced the water pump and no more squeal.

 

Sound like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_G2zp-opg

 

^^ ^^

 

did you check you power steering fluid??

 

my tensioner (in the middle at the top) made a squeeling noise.....before it TOTALLY crapped out on me...and start throwing sparks all over the place on my '86 22r LOL

 

yup the bearing in the tensioner for the ps belt was bad. let me guess you've had this problem before?

 

I'm thinking the same for my own truck.

 

Just remove the tensioner and try to roll the bearing by hand. Probably take you five minutes to find out. And most likely you'll need to replace your belt anyway cuz if your bearing was bad the belt may have been forced to slide over the pulleys which can chew it up pretty quick

 

You can use a piece of hose as a listening device to narrow the noise down .

 

If it is the tensioner , pull it off and it has a replaceble bearing in it. Mine made a ˟˟˟˟ty squealing noise and the bearing was shot, maybe $ 8.00 at the parts house.

 

Or even the tube from the core of a roll of paper towels.

Finding it before you fix it is good. Changing parts at random ....