I have have 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0L, and one morning I went out to start it up and it started and ran fine, but it started making a sort of belt squeaking sound. I checked the belts and they are nice, new and fresh looking. SO I ruled out that the belts were not bad. I drove the vehicle for a week or so and the car didn't make the noise, but it has now started making the noise again, but at times the noise is faint something like a bird chirping, and it then has times that its loud such as a belt squealing. I have ruled that the area that the sound seems to be coming from is near or around the distributor. I have recently purchased a new distributor cap, and rotor button, plugs & wires because it needs it 100 thousand miles replacement. I haven't installed these yet because I haven't had time, but I am wondering if anyone has heard of this and that it is the distributor going south? The car only has 106,000 miles on it and I talked to a gent at a local parts store and he said that that is really low mileage for the distributor to be going bad . Any suggestions or advice is really appreciated!!THANKS!

DaryRon Steffey did pass the time by typing:Look in the base of your distributor. If it has oil/sludge the bushingmight be worn out. Usually they just tick when badly worn.Mine went south at about 100,000 miles.At 100,000+ on my ZJ, a squeeky belt is normal. :/Especially when it's humid outside.If the ZJ used V belts I'd say worn pulleys, but I'm not surethat serpentine pulleys wear that way.

Hi Jeff, If you can get in there without getting your fingers clipped by thefan or pulleys, run the belt over a bar of soap, it'll quit right downif that's the problem. God Bless America, ßill O|||||||Omailto: wrote:

Thank you for replying to my post with some information that explains that rare things to happen! I have since changed the distributor cap, rotor button, plugs & wires. I drove the car afterwords and heard the same screeching noise as I had previouslly said that I heard. So I invested 59.00 in a remanufactured jeep distributor and the problem was solved!! After I installed the new distributor I took the old one and held it in my hand while rotating the shaft and I was able to hear the noise every 3-4 complete turns of the shaft. SO thank you for all the great advice!G.Sandhu wrote:news:...

Thanks for telling us that it was the distributor as you originallyguessed. God Bless America, ßill O|||||||Omailto:

Distributor noise?

Mar 02, 2004 24 Replies

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L.W.(ßill) 22 years ago

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DougW 22 years ago

CRWLR did pass the time by typing:

You need one of these.

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Remember.. no belt = no water pump or cooling fan. It's easier to touch some soap to the sides of a belt to determine if the belt is rubbing.

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G.Sandhu 22 years ago

It is the distributor. I have had the same noise in my 98TJ 4.0 ((55,000 miles) for the past month or so. It finally reached the occasional screeching stage before I could figure it out. The noise disappeared for several days after I took off the cap and sprayed a smidge of WD-40 down the shaft. Anyway, I am putting in a new Mopar distributor this weekend. This is the first distributor I have had go bad among any of the cars and Jeeps I have owned. The belt related advice is also valid, but rare things do happen..... Regards,

Guri Sandhu

98TJ

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DaryRon Steffey 22 years ago

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L.W.(ßill) 22 years ago

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