I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to identify the root cause of this chirping noise after engine start. I believe that I’ve located the cause (on my truck at least) so I thought I’d share. Just to be clear, my truck would only make the chirping noise after engine start. The noise would go away after the engine warmed up for a couple or few minutes.
At first, I changed the original belt and tensioner for a Gates belt and tensioner. That worked for about 1200 miles but the same noise returned. I replaced the idler pulley as well with a Gates idler pulley. No change. Still chirped. I cleaned all of the pulleys. All pulleys were aligned and the belt was installed correctly. Still chirped. I applied a small amount of water to the belt and that silenced the sound immediately until the water dried.
Then the chirping would return again.
As suggested a couple of times earlier in this thread, I now believe that the sound is being caused by paint on the crankshaft pulley but I haven’t been able to prove it yet. At some point I’ll take the belt off again and remove the paint from that pulley.
As a temporary band aid, I put a small dab of dielectric grease (silicone paste) on the ribbed part of the belt and the noise has disappeared for the last 1,000 miles and for multiple cold starts. I’m surprised at how long it has lasted. I know that some won’t agree with this method but its working better than anything else has so far!
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