belt squeaks in the morning

[hungt1999]

In the morning when the engine is cold, I hear a loud squeaking sound when I manoeuver my car out of the parking lot. The squeak persists for about 5 minutes of driving whenever I manoeuver the steering in either direction.

All belts are visually fine, no cracks and every belt seems tight to the touch.

is the squeak caused by a too tight or too loose belt?

which belt do need to adjust?

[BamZipPow]

Sounds like yer power steering belt needs attention. When was it last replaced? Wife took her Camry to a mechanic and they installed a Gatorback belt on there. It squeaked everyday until I replaced it with an OEM belt 2 weeks later.

I'm not sure how yer power steering setup is...but I would check yer power steering setup carefully.

[speedy25]

Its hard to believe that this normal maintenance item gets made into sooooooo many threads!

Does your version of "tight" match the manufacturers?
If it really is tight then it squeaks from contamination or wear.

One other possibility is the rubber of the harmonic balancer is failing.

I also had the same symptom on occasion that turned into the water pump catastrophically failing.

Your call to tighten or replace.

-SP

[Nusdogg]

Sounds like a loose serpentine belt. Get it tighten up. Too loose will cause it to squeak when the belt is cold, too tight will cause bearing failure. You can try to spray each belt at a time when it's making the noise to see which one stops the squeaking noise.

My '95 Prizm LSi use to squeak loud as hell during the winter when engine is running cold. All belt did seem tight but the pwr str belt wasn't as tight as it feel, so I tighten it up and no more squeaking noise at cold.

GL!

[Zembonez]

Belts harden and the surface becomes slick with wear. It may look fine visually. Replace your belts.