I have 99 Mazda Protege w/ about 130 K miles on it. It drives great, but has been making this awful, loud squeeling noise which seems to be mostly when I turn the wheel(esp. hard) or when it’s rainy/humid out. But I have also heard it when I first started up the car a couple of times. It tends to go away w/ acceleration (after a few seconds of it).I have brand new belts on the car so I don’t think that’s the problem…what could it be??
Most likely, those new belts are not tight enough.
Was the belt tensioner replaced along with the belts? If not, on a 9 year-old car, the tensioner could be the source of the problem, or perhaps the belts just need to be tightened. In either case, go back to the mechanic who installed those belts.
I second everything VDCdriver said.