This morning when I started up my car, a loud noise, like a belt squeel, was comming from the engine compartment. Turned off the car and restarted it. No noise. Drove to a friends house. restarted the car and the noise is back to stay. I checked the belts and the noise is not comming from there. Checked the fluid levels and they are okay (almost sounds like its comming from inside the engine. Spun bearing?)
The noise does not change from park to drive or an other gear. If the sound increases at all it's not very noticeable when driving. almost sounds like something rubbing (flywheel on tranny?).
Any ideas?
changed the oil. Oil looks okay and does not smell. No sign of water or foaming.
Timing belt was changed about 10,000 miles ago and has not given me any problems.
fan belt is good too. Changed the same time as timing belt.
Any clues?

 

sounds like a bad water pump, or if your lucky a bad tensioner on the belt.

 

Chack all the pulleys on the belt drive - Timing as well as the outer one.

+1 for tony - You might be lucky to have just the bad belt tensioner.

Remove the belt and start the engine and see if the sound goes away. If yes, check- alternator, idler pulley and Tensioner.
If not- Remove the timing belt cover (one 12mm bolt) and try to isolate the noisy pulley/waterpump.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll release the pressure on the belt tensioner, and remove the belt.
Hopefully thats it. Okay some new info. About a month ago I found my radiator reservoir empty, like I had a leak somewhere. Could not find any leak anywhere. filled up res. and then this happened. I wonder if it is the water pump??? is there a indicator hole in the water pump? like many other manufacturers?

 

all signs point towards a waterpump.

 

Yes, If you will reomve the timing belt cover, then you will not miss to see the wet area around the pump and wet at the lower end of the engine there. That will identify if it is your waterpump or not. The pump ofcourse have a hole (indicator) but its on the bottom side and hard to see from the top but as I mentioned above, the leakage from the pump will be very obvious. I would suggest replacing the timing belt at the same time becuase you will have to take the belt off during the pump replacement.