Hey guys, I hope someone can help me. I just picked up a 1998 SE maxima and when I start the car up I start to hear a squealing noise. When I rev the engine the squeal gets louder and the goes away once the RPMS fall. Most of the time it goes away on it's own. My last maxima sometimes did this also, and the alterantor and belts had been replaced. Ithiught it maybe just needed to be lubricated but now I'm starting to worry. Any ideas?

 

Dont lubricate the belt it will squeal all the time! I bet your belts are just a little loose, tighten them down a bit and i bet the noise goes away. If you already lubricated the belt i think you are going to need a new one

 

Thanks for the info bro, but Nah didn't lube them yet...but I'll try tightening it down sometime this week since I'm a double shift tom and Tuesday...how many bolts are there to tighten

 

Don't make them to tight or else you may significantly wear out the belts, and they may tear at an unexpected time. I believe they sell power steering stop squeal at auto zone. This may also help!

 

check your power steerin belt, its been squealin on mine, havent had a chance to replace it thou

 

How hard do you guys think it'll be to change the power steerig belt...also what kinda belt to use...I've heard Nissan belts are the ones to go with and will stop the squealing. I work at Pepboys so if a regular belt will work fine then, I'll just get one from there.

 

I'd go either OEM or the Goodyear gatorback.

 

Tighten the tensioner 1st. If the squeel doesn't go away after that, look into replacing belts.

 

hey i have the same problem and i didn't know what it was but thanks to this thread not i know what to check for

 

My son's 96 has been squealing on start-up since we got it, over a year ago. It stops after about 20 seconds, so I haven't messed with it. Sort of lets me know if he is late for school or not...

 

Tighten it and it won't squeal anymore.

 

It helps him know his sons whereabouts lol

 

Belts FTW

 

Most of the time that's not true.

 

IDLER PULLEY that fixed my squealing? and a new belt..

 

Check the belt tension, tensioner pulley, then check the crank pulley, it has a rubber section between the hub and outer ring. I'm pretty sure that's my problem. I've used Bando belts with no problems, also Gates.

 

what are you talking about?

about 80% of the time when a belt is squealing it is being there is not enough tension on it for the load. This is why belts almost always squeal on startup when turning the wheel to lock or just after turning on the a/c. It's similar to not having enough traction and your wheels spinning, eventually the belt catches up to the pulley speed but until it does it squeals. Increasing the tension on the belts (to the correct tension) takes care of this problem in most cases.

as for the other 20% of cases, 17% of you need new belts and the remaining 3% can listen to bamfy98 and check your bearings and compressor clutch

 

I had the same problem with mine. I started doing process of elimination and deleted the a/c compressor to see if that was it. The problem was still there until my buddy told me to tighten my belt. I did and have not had the problem since.

Definitly tighten your belts first!!!
Tighten it until there is no play but stop there.

 

Mine were squealing. I tightened the tensioners, alt, etc..and it was still present. I just sprayed "belt conditioner" on it, and now no squealing.

 

Dont lube the belt, it may seem like its good, but its actually bad, it gets it all soft, and most people dont want that, because once it gets soft, it slips, and squealing. I was told that by many, many alternator techs. and old timer mechanics. I actuallly lost a belt (broke, just tore apart one day) by using the belt conditioner, you want it to stick, but the conditioner just makes it soft and more prone to slipping and aquealing.

Just keep checking the belts to see if there tight, but not too tight, and check to see if they have any kind of tears, rips, bumps, and crackes in them, if they do, that might be your problem (if theres major cracks, that most likely will be your problem).

 

Well, I did just replace them about 4-5 months ago. Took the SE back a few times for the techs to look at it again and re-adjust if needed. Each time they said it was fine and still squealed. I looked at the brand of belt and it was some off brand that I didn't recognize. In retrospect, I should have insisted on a more recognizable trust worthy brand like Goodyear or OEM. But I was pretty strapped for cash at the time. For now, I’ll just use these, and swap them out at a later date (within a year). I will be replacing the Alt. soon when I install a lightning audio capacitor for the stereo system.

 

I'm running a Goodyear so it's a pretty good belt, I'm checking tension but idk if I'm inthe right tensioner. Other than annoying is there any harm this could cause

 

If changed the tensioner pully and the belt and the squeal continues what should I do

 

Adjust the belt tenson properly. It will squeel if it's not tight enough. Generally it should be possible to deflect a belt less than 1/2 inch with moderate finger pressure.

Also look at the hsrmonic balancer (the main pully. Sometimes it seperated from its inner portion. Then the belt can rub things which it shouldn't.