GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi all, been lurking for a long time. I have an '04 Vibe with about 95K miles. The engine had a sound like a bird chirping for a couple of years and recently it had a rather loud belt squeal on first startup on cold mornings. So, thanks to this forum, I figured the notorious belt tensioner was the culprit (I had changed the belt about a year ago which did not fix the chirping noise). So I changed the tensioner (jacking the engine up and all that fun stuff) andpbut a new belt on. However, I still hear the chirping noise, and I'm still getting the belt squeal on cold mornings. Possibly related, the other day my heater started blowing cold air intermittently. Temp gauge was reading normal (about halfway) so I thought maybe it was low on coolant, but it was fine. So that has me thinking water pump maybe? Guess I need to pull the belt and turn the waterpump by hand, but figured I'd pick your brains in the meantime to see if maybe someone else has experienced a similar issue. Thanks.

Try go on youtube " Camry Water Pump Noise" and see if your noise corrospond to those metallic noise?But since the noise you discribed only happen during cold and once it warm up it is fine, i doubt it relate to water pump. So i would say just moisture on the belt surface.I would suggest to take the belt out, use brake cleaner to clean all the pulleys. Either oil/rustproof overspray on the belt/pulley might contribute to the noise as well.

Thanks for the tips. It's not the same noise as the Camry water pump. I'll take the belt off and inspect all he pulleys and clean them. Hopefully that'll help. Thanks.

Since the Belt and tensioner are good, the only other thing it would be is a pulley. Turn each one by hand with the belt off and let us know.