intermittent loud front-end squeal

Hey guys, thanks in advance for any ideas.

Here's the deal. I've got a 2000 XJ, completely stock, with 125,000 miles on it. About a week ago, a rather loud squeal came from the engine compartment just as I was parking. I shut it off, had lunch, and turned it on an hour later to hear the same noise. As I backed out of the parking spot and started moving forward, the noise was gone.

Off and on for the whole week, the noise would come and go. It would almost always be there when starting the engine and would typically go away after getting the engine up to about 2k RPMs. Thursday and Friday, however, it seemed as though I'd need to get to highway speeds before it would go away. Also, it would randomly not exist when starting sometimes!

So, last night, I drive to a friends house and park. A couple hours later, I start it up and try to back up to find the steering wheel doesn't turn very easily and the "check gauges" light has kicked on. The squeal was louder than ever at that point.

Starting to sound like a bad power steering pump b/c of the difficulty moving the steering wheel, but would it have still been squealing when the XJ was not moving right after starting the engine?

I'm a complete newb and know just enough about cars to get myself in trouble, so before I head off to the mechanic, any ideas of what I *could* get myself into would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Have you even looked under the hood?

Haha, yeah, I looked around but it's so loud that it's hard to single out where it's exactly coming from.

It seems to be coming from the front extreme front end of the engine compartment, near the alternator. I was thinking a bearing is probably going out on the alternator, but then the power steering issues confused me.

Oh, it's a 4L engine, btw.

okreno said:

Haha, yeah, I looked around but it's so loud that it's hard to single out where it's exactly coming from.

It seems to be coming from the front extreme front end of the engine compartment, near the alternator. I was thinking a bearing is probably going out on the alternator, but then the power steering issues confused me.

Oh, it's a 4L engine, btw.

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Thats easy the ALT problem is causing your belt to slip.

Check you're harmonic ballancer, I had the same thing on my MJ and it ended up being the two parts of the ballancer were seperating, I could see the vucanized rubber sticking out from between the two halves.

When your check guages light came on, did you do what it said and check the guages? If you did, which one wasn't reading normal. If the squeeling is coming from the alternator, your voltage probably took a nose dive and thats what tripped the light. IIRC, the volt meter has to drop to about 9 volts or lower to trip the light to come on. It's been a while since i've seen mine come on due to a new battery, so don't quote me on that one.

BTW, hows the condition of the serpentine belt itself? You mentioned you had 125K on your engine. When was the last time it was replaced? Does it look glazed, or feel loose to you? Notice the engine running like crap during the squeeling? Need a little more info as to what its doing during the squeeling as to what it might be.

99XJSPORT06 said:

When your check guages light came on, did you do what it said and check the guages? If you did, which one wasn't reading normal. If the squeeling is coming from the alternator, your voltage probably took a nose dive and thats what tripped the light. IIRC, the volt meter has to drop to about 9 volts or lower to trip the light to come on. It's been a while since i've seen mine come on due to a new battery, so don't quote me on that one.

BTW, hows the condition of the serpentine belt itself? You mentioned you had 125K on your engine. When was the last time it was replaced? Does it look glazed, or feel loose to you? Notice the engine running like crap during the squeeling? Need a little more info as to what its doing during the squeeling as to what it might be.

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Also check the water pump: it's about time to replace it. Anyways with the engine off just see which pulley wobbles.

yeah, I looked around but it's so loud that it's hard to single out where it's exactly coming from.

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Sounds like you've got a loose/bad belt or a bad pulley bearing somewhere. Unless you are sure that the belt is loose or bad, the best way to check for this is to remove the belt and spin each pulley by hand and feel for roughness or wobble and listen for rough sounding bearings. If you are handy with tools and dont mind doing your own wrenching, get a 15mm wrench and remove the serp belt and examine each pulley you see. You'll need a way to check the belt tension when you are done...ie, special tensioner gauge.

If you dont have tools or the time or knowhow or dont want to be bothered with it, let a good shop handle it for you. You are looking at 30 to 50 dollars for the belt plus about an hour labor to change it. They may or may not find other items when they go in it. Expect a minimum of 100 bux for a shop to fix....hopefully thats all they will find. If you decide to do it yourself, there is a TON of information to be found via the search feature at the top of the page. Things to search for are "belt squeal", "krikit", "water pump", "idler pulley", and "harmonic balancer". That ought to keep you busy for about a half a day reading, not to mention all of the OTHER ideas that you need to check out once you start reading the old posts.

They/you need to keep an eye on that harmonic balancer pulley (that big pulley at the very bottom of your engine. You are in the right time frame for it to start to fail.

Dave


Forgot to mention...

If you have AC, pay particular attention to the pulley that runs it. If the bearing goes or it, and you keep running it without finding the problem or having it looked at, the pulley tilts slightly (due to bearing failure) and then rubs the electrical coil housing underneath it. With no attention, the pulley rubs on the metal coil housing and friction will melt the coil that turns your ac compressor on and off.

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I just got back into town and just had a real chance to get under the hood in the daylight.

I figured I needed to change my oil anyway, so I went and bought an oil filter and some oil. While at the store, I remembered the last time I looked at my serp. belt, it was getting kind of cracked, so I picked up another one and figured I'd change it while I was under there.

So, upon opening my hood, I found that my serp belt had snapped! (I was glad I just picked one up on my way to check out my XJ!) I pulled the old belt out and started inspecting my pullies and everything seems to be moving well, except maybe the AC compressor. I can't turn that pulley by hand at all... is that normal for an AC compressor?

Another issue I'm having is getting the tension pulley to move so I can get the new belt on... I've loosened the bolt, but that just causes the bolt to come up--the pulley refuses to move. Are there any tricks to freeing up that pulley? It spins freely, just isn't moving back and forth.

Thanks again for all the ideas...what a great forum!

okreno said:

started inspecting my pullies and everything seems to be moving well

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question is whether it was kind of wobbly though (side to side instead of rotational).

Another issue I'm having is getting the tension pulley to move so I can get the new belt on... I've loosened the bolt, but that just causes the bolt to come up--the pulley refuses to move. Are there any tricks to freeing up that pulley? It spins freely, just isn't moving back and forth.

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IIRC the 2K, is identical to my 97 and 98. Once you loosen the front bolt on the tension pulley, there is a rod behind it that you turn with a wrench that is used for adjusting the tension.

So, upon opening my hood, I found that my serp belt had snapped!

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So you were driving with no belt??? That would mean no power steering, no cooling to the engine. Yikes!

I can't turn that pulley by hand at all... is that normal for an AC compressor?

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No that's your problem

Kejtar said:

question is whether it was kind of wobbly though (side to side instead of rotational).

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No, I didn't see any side to side give, just nice rotation.

Kejtar said:

IIRC the 2K, is identical to my 97 and 98. Once you loosen the front bolt on the tension pulley, there is a rod behind it that you turn with a wrench that is used for adjusting the tension.

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Good to know...I saw the rod behind and figured it had something to do with that. I'll attack it again in the morning.

Kejtar said:

So you were driving with no belt??? That would mean no power steering, no cooling to the engine. Yikes!

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Haha, no, luckily I made it to my destination with no problems. An hour or so later, I started it up and heard a sudden terribly loud noise, which is when it must have broke.

Thanks for the info on the tension rod!

langer1 said:

No that's your problem--regarding unable to turn A/C compressor by hand

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Hmm...so does that mean I have to replace it before the XJ is drivable again? There's no way to get around the A/C?

okreno said:

Hmm...so does that mean I have to replace it before the XJ is drivable again? There's no way to get around the A/C?

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Not really. I just checked the belt routing and for Non AC application there is an idler pulley there and routing is the same.

I understand that idler pulley set-up to eliminate the a/c is a real bear to find. Don

okreno said:

Hmm...so does that mean I have to replace it before the XJ is drivable again? There's no way to get around the A/C?

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You need to fix it, you may just need a new clutch for it not the whole compressor.

At least it's easily accessible.

Looks like I get to work from home tomorrow and fix it. I found a factory service manual, so I should be good to go.

Any ideas of cost for the clutch for the AC compressor? Cheaper at AutoZone or the stealerships?