My 97 SE has a high pitched squeaky chittering sound coming from the engine, it makes it only when the engine is idling. It has nothing to do with vehicle speed, it does it if the car is sitting still or doing 65 MPH so long as I'm not pressing the gas pedal. It sounds a bit like when old cars had a loose V belt, but of course our Bonnies have a serpentine belt. I'm guessing it'* a bushing in one of the pulleys. I'll probably just drop it off at my dealer and let them figure it out, but I thought I'd ask if anybody has knowledge of a common cause, or if these squirrel noises are kind of random in cause.

TIA,
Mark

Nothing comes to mind.

But, you can verify which pulley is causing the chatter by loosening the belt and laying it aside of all the pulleys. Then, free spin each pulley one at a time. Listen closely for the noisey one.

Sounds like pulley/belt noise to me, too. You're going to have to isolate it. Try spraying WD-40 on the bearings for each pulley while at idle. That can help find it, but don't consider that the fix if it gets quiet. Replace the offending pulley.

Invest $10 on a mechanics stethescope. I had a squeeling from my belt drive and could not find it, 3 minutes with my new toy and I located it. I did this by putting the tip of the scope on the non rotating bolt in the center of the pulley. For pulleys that have 100% rotating parts, place the tip of the scope on the component houseing/bracket, the noise will transmit. For me it was the SC Idler pulley in the engine mount.

The scope is also good for finding rattles in the interior.


USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN PLACING TOOLS AND BODY PARTS NEAR THE BELT DRIVE. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING ATACHED TO YOUR HEAD!

Jay

A length of heater hose will work well as a stethescope also. Probably an idler or tensioner pully bearing.