My steering belt screams when I start the car, but goes away after a second or two, quicker if I rev the engine quickly. It was loose, so I tightened the pulley a bit and that made it slightly less bad. The belt is only a few thousand miles old. Might it be the pulley, should I replace that?

 

yea tighten all that you can. when i had my 03 lancer es i did experience a similar problem. i had about 110k miles on it and same issue, i had just replaced my power steering & a/c belts yet it was still squealing every now and then. turns out my issue was that the timing belt needed to be replaced . i traded my car in with 140k and i never had to replace any pulleys.. how many miles do you have currently?

 

155k. The timing belt was done maybe 40 or 50k miles ago, might be time for a new one soon. I did tighten the pulley all I could really, maybe could do some more?

 

replace the pulley and belt did it for mine. did each separate and didn't fix seems like it took both at the same time on my car.

 

which pully ryan? I got the same issue. My timing belt was just changed though so I know its not cuz its an old belt.

 

I always thought you had to re adjust the tension on the belt and putting a few hundred miles on it. I say tighten a bit further.

 

Gates DriveAlign® - Tensioner Pulley

Part # 36238

was what i used.

 

when the belt is squealing, it's because the belt is slipping. if your timing belt is squealing, you have a lot more problems to worry about. but when the belt slips, it glazes your pulleys and will continue to slip because it reduced the friction. you have to clean your pulleys really good and remove all the oil and residue before doing a belt change. if not, you will continue to experience the same problems.

 

I read once that if the pulley was polished, you ca scuff it up a bit with some sandpaper and it will stop the squealing.

Are people going to freak out and yell at me now?

 

Was the belt completely dry? Were there any foreign materials on it such as hydraulic fluid or oils of any kind?