My car (95 4cyl Camry) has been squeaking briefly on ignition for a couple months now. Usually, that’s the end of it. Occasionally, it’ll continue to squeak loudly until I cycle the power on the A/C.
Every once in a while, it’ll start quietly squeaking again at a stoplight. Almost always, power cycling the AC fixes it.
What’s the problem? Can I ignore it?
I should say that it’s got about 200K miles on it, and I’m shopping for a new one. I just want to make sure something’s not going to give way suddenly and leave me stranded.
Sounds like your A/C drive belt is loose. Simply tightening it will most likely fix the problem. It may be glazed due to slipping and might need replacing.
When was the last time your drive belts were replaced?
The accessory drive belts on your Camry are old, dry, and not properly tensioned. The squealing you hear are the belts slipping on the pulleys.
New, properly tensioned belts will stop the noise and prevent you from being stranded if one of the old belts breaks.
If you’re planning to buy a new car soon, like in a few days or weeks, you can probably ignore it.
A few months ago, but the harmonic balancer failed and was replaced after that. So maybe that failure damaged the belt.
They probably didn’t tighten the belt enough when the balancer was replaced.