Topic: Nightly Jeep Squeel Bad Power Steering Pump? Air in Lines?

[chrisfranklin]

My Jeep has been running great lately.  But, it gets cold for So. Cal. at night these days and I've started to notice a noise that only seems to occur at a low evening temperatures.  Its a "squeel" and it only seems to sound when I am idle and stationary; once underway it seems to quiet down (or maybe the Borla exhaust rumble just drowns out the noise .  

Anyway, sounds to me like the power-steering pump has a problem or otherwise is low on fluid.  But, I check the fluid and the resevoir has it at the proper level; hell everything is at the proper level and functioning properly on my rig, as I am the resident "outlaw" DIYer (at least according to posted rules) at my apartment complex.

So,  assuming that it is the power-steering pump that is making the "squeel," do you think this could be an issue of air in the hydraulic lines? Any similar circumstances out there. Thanks. Jeffy?

[Jeffy]

You sure it's not the serpentine belt?

[chrisfranklin]

Last time I looked it was ok, but will give it a doublecheck.

Read some writeup about air in the lines causing a PS squeel.  Writeup detailed a whole process in which you crank the wheels left to write, shut engine on and off and then top off power steering resevoir and the air is expelled and squeel elmiminated.  Unfamiliar noises can be tough to describe w/out a sound file.

Actually may record audio and post here using a third party, free-bee audio/video host.  Done that with audio before and it seemed to work pretty well

[Jeffy]

If it's not the belt then I would guess one of the idlers is going bad.  They often do...

[chrisfranklin]

:cry:

I am thinking that the power steering is actually ok. I checked it, found no leaks etc.

But, now I am detecting the "squeal" day or night, regardless of temperature.  It may be the waterpump or something else.  Probably should go and check the coolant level too.

[SMC4WD]

I hope, I think I may have answered that.

http://www.4bangerjp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5534#5534

[chrisfranklin]

Probably the damn waterpump!  Just had the thing replaced within the last year.  Checked coolant and it is normal level, so the current pump has some liquid to spin

Probably get something else this time, maybe the flowkool pump.  If it turns out to be the waterpump, what's ridiculous is that for the price of a high-quality aftermarket pump, such as flowkool, I'd be getting just a stock pump from a service retailer.

Alternator was replaced at around 80-90k, so I am fairly certain I haven't blown the thing yet.  And I cranked around the power steering and really put it through its paces and didn't notice any noise.  Me thinks its the water pump.

[SMC4WD]

I'd recommend a factory water pump.  The remanufactured one's (even with a 'lifetime guarantee' aren't that good.

So your idea of a flowkool, or similar is a good idea, just stay away from those NAPA/Schucks/Kragen/Auto Zone remanufactured one's.

[chrisfranklin]

I had the belt replaced last night.   Squeal seemed to disappear.  But, then I thought I heard it briefly again.  Could be alternator bearings or not.  Same deal as on 4BangerJP's "Dan Marino's " post.

[Jeffy]

Tighten the belt a bit more.

[midnightcwby]

I agree with Jeffy, tighten the belt.  You do know that when you install a new belt, there is a break-in period (that almost no one cares about) where you're supposed to re-tighten the belt(s) after so many miles to make up for the slight stretch the belts will yield while breaking in? You probably do, but, like most of us, probably don't take the extra time to go back and actaully do that .  I had to readjust my serp belt several times till I got the squeal out of mine.  My belt squealed VERY rarely.  It was so rare that by the time I got somewhere I could check it, I forgot about the dumb thing!  I noticed it flapping more than I thought it should be one day I was under my hood screwing around with one thing or another.  This is how I found out that my jeep has no dang auto/spring loaded tensioner for the serp! That's friggin' nuts!  A serp job was a 15 minute job when I worked at a dealership, this thing takes noticeably longer than that thanks to all the dumb adjuster bolts you have to find/loosen just to adjust the dang thing.  I do see the benefit of this if you ever hit LOTS of water at high engine speeds; the auto/spring loaded adjuster will actually let the belt hydroplane off the pulleys, but I can still bitch about it being a pain in the butt to do it manually, right?!

[chrisfranklin]

Yeah, the other night (and this squeel noise only seems to sound at night for some reason), I popped the hood to doublecheck where this squeel is coming from and see if I could find out why the noise disappears when I rev the engine a little.

I was looking for the noise to be coming from the Water pump or the alternator or maybe the fan belt.  So I get close and listen in and realize that the squeel is coming from the bored out 4.0TB I installed on my 2.5.

Had changed and adjusted the fan belt, which was a pretty cheap deal, but that didn't help.  Figured it was going to be a water pump or alternator change, but both of those parts were functioning well, so I was seriously confused.

Anyway, I am running a spacer, tubing and open-element filter.  May pull the spacer out and see if that helps any.  Have heard of this noise coming from 4.0L TB installs, but thought mine had been immune till now.  Sound is seriously loud, going to have to do something.  You may see a $70 spacer up on a certain auction site soon.  You guys heard of any other solutions, maybe covered here?

[Jeffy]

A squeal from a TB?  The spacer if it's a poweraid will sometimes whistle but not squeal. :?:

[chrisfranklin]

Whatever the correct wording, squeel (sounds like a mouse squeel to me) or "whistle," it sounds high-pitched and annoying as hell.   At least it ain't a bad alternator or water pump, apparently.   :wink:

Don't mind losing the spacer to fix it, but don't want to lose the 4.0 TB.

[chrisfranklin]

Found this post on spacer install-- guy said he rotated the spacer 90 degrees and flipped it upside down and that this apparently killed the "whistle."  Going to give that a go today.  

http://jeepin.com/features/tbspacer/index.asp