Started up the evo after a month of letting it sit in storage and it was squeaking pretty badly so I opened up the hood and noticed this. Prior to the pictures being taken I did quick water drop isolation test - where I used a straw to dribble water onto points of interest that may have been causing the noise - it appears that the belt tensioner was causing the noise.

Anywho, is this normal wear pattern?

 

mine squeaks too! but i think i have a bad bearing. did the sqeaking go away after you let it run?

 

no, for a few hours then it came back

 

It could be the belt itself squeaking, if you think its the tensioner you can pull it off and spin it and see if the bearing is good or not

 

good call bobster

 

i would say that any weird noise your car would make wouldnt be normal and should be fixed. who wants a squeaky car anyways.

 

there was a thread just a couple of days ago stating the problem could also be the harmonic balancer starting to come loose. it may just be a tensioner but i would just pop that cover off just to be sure. good luck.

 

Bearings in the tensioner just got a little rusty from sitting. Watch it carefully because after it starts to make noise it normally self destructs a few days later

 

my car makes the same damn noise. its killing me and i dont have time to check it out. what i was planning on doing is taking the belt off and seeing if the noise goes away. if it does, then its the tensioner for the drive belt. if it doesnt, then its the tensioner for the timing belt, which im hoping it isnt. but it seems like theres no way to take off the belt from the top, real stupid if you as me.

 

If you think its the belt just spray some WD40 on it and see if it goes away. If its the tensioner its shouldnt be that expensive to replace.

 

It could be the bearings in the belt tensioner are going bad from sitting water.

 

dont spray Wd40 on your belt... check on bearings and pullys and see if anything sqeaks, Then you will know if its your belt or not.. pretty easy fix if one of the pulleys sqeak hose it down alittle with some lubricant.