Chirping on Cold Startups

garciapiano

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Location
Southern California
TDI
1997 Jetta TDI (1Z)
Hi guys,

I’m getting a chirping noise that slowly began to arise from the belts that only occurs on cold morning startups and goes away once the car has warmed up. There is an audible chirp every time the crankshaft turns around. The serpentine belt was changed at the same time as the timing belt and has roughly 40k on it and the tensioner pulley was replaced at the same time, along with the one-way pulley on the alternator and the harmonic balancer.

I just changed the power steering belt to see if it was that and it was not, although the belt was starting to look a little sad. Which leads me to believe it is the serpentine belt. The tensioner and idler pulley arm appears to rotate as normal and is not bouncing around as if the tensioner was bad. Is there anything I should look for before I tear into the system to install a new serpentine belt?
 

Mozambiquer

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Mar 21, 2015
Location
Versailles Missouri
TDI
2004 VW Touareg V10 TDI, 2012 Audi Q7 V6 TDI, 1998 VW Jetta TDI. 1982 VW Rabbit pickup, 2001 VW Jetta TDI, 2005 VW Passat wagon TDI X3, 2001 VW golf TDI, 1980 VW rabbit pickup,
Pull the belt and spin the individual componentes by hand and see if any of them have any roughness or squeaks. Also check the clutch pulley on the alternator again. Make sure it free wheels one way and not the other.
A way to check if it is the belt is to spray a bit of belt dressing on it while it's chirping. If it goes away, that may be your issue. Still check the other components though.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
Clean, degrease belt and pullies. See if it clears up. What brand belt is it?
 

garciapiano

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Location
Southern California
TDI
1997 Jetta TDI (1Z)
Clean, degrease belt and pullies. See if it clears up. What brand belt is it?
It's a continental belt, so OE spec. I don't have a belly pan in place so it's possible that the belt got some road grease sprayed on it over the winter.

Looks like I'll have to tear into it this weekend and see what I find. I'll probably replace the belt while I'm in there. Thanks guys!
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
My first suspicion would be harmonic balancer, but you mention it's been replaced. Is there a chance that the new one is causing this or is it the new style?

You can try and use a stethoscope to see if it's another component but you might not be able to find it that way...but sometimes you can. Alternators sometimes chirp for a while...

Steve
 
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garciapiano

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Location
Southern California
TDI
1997 Jetta TDI (1Z)
My first suspicion would be harmonic balancer, but you mention it's been replaced. Is there a chance that the new one is causing this or is it the new style?

You can try and use a stethoscope to see if it's another component but you might not be able to find it that way...but sometimes you can. Alternators sometimes chirp for a while...

Steve
There is totally a chance that the new HB is doing it because it was a Vaico, not the Febi, and was a total China-engineered POS that didn't even fit flush to the crank without significant dremeling.

That being said, I'll try the simple stuff first before I fully condemn it.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
i have not heard of a harmonic balancer making a chirping sound when its being started, only when shutting off the engine. could be but, look, these belts (even OE) are made about 1 million a minute at the factory. i would suspect a belt 9/10. I would take the belt off and scrub it in some degreaser like simplegrean or grease lightning. spray the pulleys off with brake cleaner and see what happens. not like your going to hurt anything running it like that, if you do put it off, i would go get a 2nd belt and keep it in the trunk just incase yours take a dump on the road.
 

jdulle

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
TDI
96 B4, 97 B4
My experience has been that these cars tend to do this unless everything is perfect. I have eliminated the chirp on both my cars by replacing the tensioner, belt, tensioner pulley, and the harmonic balancer on one car. I started with just the part that seemed bad, but found improvement each time I replaced an additional part. It seems like it only goes away if everything is perfect. Now the squeak is back on one car but I think its the a/c bearing. This new squeak doesn't go away when warm.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I have had the harmonic balancer do this too many times to count, but also the tensioner and roller. You have to remove the belt to see if the roller bearing is shot but most of the time they are, especially with the cheap rollers out there. If the roller is bouncing around a lot then you might replace the tensioner while you're there and check that the arm between the two moves easily but not too easily.

 

Gli_ryan

Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2019
Location
Idaho
TDI
B4v
I think my starter makes a sort of chirping noise on cold startups. Not every single time though. It’s audible for about .5 to 1 second after letting the key go from “start” position to “run”. More of a loud whizz or long chirp
 

TDI Jim

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Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
Gaithersburg, Maryland
TDI
1996 Passat, 1996 Passat Variant (RIP), 2002 Jetta Wagon, 1995 Passat Variant TDI conversion brought back from the dead, 1997 Passat Variant project, and returned 2014 Passat
Abacus is spot on as always, and another potential issue is the tensioner arm bushing being shot or dry grease or none at all, but usually the harmonic balancer on my cars
 

garciapiano

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Location
Southern California
TDI
1997 Jetta TDI (1Z)
The chirping is back and now it doesn't seem to matter what temp it is outside... if the car is completely cold it will squeak until it has warmed up.

I pulled off the serpentine belt and felt up all the rollers. They are clean and dry. The only thing that made noise was my clutched alternator pulley. The clutch mechanism works fine but makes an audible squeak every time it freewheels, which appears to be the same sound that I've been hearing under the hood. The bearing feels harder to turn than when I initially installed it. I tried hitting it with some silicone spray which had no effect. I guess there is a possibility of a bad pulley, but this is definitely weird since it is an OEM INA pulley and I replaced it only 40k ago. Pathetic lifespan, but I guess I'll try another pulley. I'm doing the Gates unit off Amazon this time, hopefully it solves the issue.
 

garciapiano

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Location
Southern California
TDI
1997 Jetta TDI (1Z)
After trying the pulley, it was to no avail. Squeak came back. What actually fixed the squeak was a new serpentine belt. The belt had no cracks or visible sign of wear, but I’m guessing it either got contaminated or wore out prematurely, or both.
 

GlowBugTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2018
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2001 Beetle GLS TDI (BIODSL). 01 original Glow Bug TDI (sold)
to bad i missed this thread earlier. i was just reading it, and was going to suggest running a cup of water over the serp belt. If the noise goes away for a lil bit them comes back like 30seconds (or something) later then its your serp belt.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
After trying the pulley, it was to no avail. Squeak came back. What actually fixed the squeak was a new serpentine belt. The belt had no cracks or visible sign of wear, but I’m guessing it either got contaminated or wore out prematurely, or both.
Interesting...curious about the brand if you happen to know.

Steve
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
If you drive with no shields in place, the belts are just hanging down low and will not last long. The road debris, water, etc. will tear them up. Put the shield on there. If the big lower shield the TDIs use is damaged beyond repair, or just plain gone, you cannot buy a new one anymore, but what you can do is get the little ABA gasser belt guard and that will at least get some protection for the belts.
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
You guys talking about those belly pans? I gave 2 away..... they’re normally broken and soaked with engine fluids.

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
You guys talking about those belly pans? I gave 2 away..... they’re normally broken and soaked with engine fluids.

-Todd
Yes...I really want a B4 belly pan, to use on the B3V.

I have plenty of diapers, those don't seem to get tossed as much.

Steve
 
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