'86 Toyota truck squeals when cold; only when driving

Dec 30, 2006 4 Replies
R

I just acquired this truck from my parents with an actual 50k miles. It's a 2wd extra cab SR5. It seems fine except for an odd squeal while driving when the engine is cold. The sound isn't subtle. It is a fairly high-pitched whine or squeal that warbles slightly at the frequency of the driveshaft (I'm guessing). I can change it's tone and loudness by varying the throttle... no noise when coasting. If I start the truck and let it warm up for ~10 minutes, it doesn't make the noise at all... normally it takes 2 or 3 miles for it to quiet down.



Any ideas? It doesn't make sense to me. If it was a belt or something in the engine, it should make noise even when I'm not driving it. On the other hand I don't understand why warming up the engine would silence the drivetrain.



Thanks...



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E

Belt squeel. Try replacing the drive belts. There are 2, they cost under $10 each. If the belts don't fix the squeel, it can be the idler bearing on the upper belt tensioner.

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R

I did increase the *tension* on the belts and it didn't help. It also doesn't make sense to me that I'd need to be driving to make them squeal. I can put it in D with the brake on and gun the engine, turn the steering back and forth, and there is no noise. The truck needs to be moving. I replaced an idler bearing on an '84 I used to have... it wasn't sounding like this, though.

Yes, this is an automatic... forgot to mention that. Seems to shift fine.

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T

Does the squeal vary with speed, like maybe a disc brake pad?

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R

I can vary the sound quite noticably by varying the throttle application, but it isn't really speed dependent... plus there is no noise when coasting, so I don't think that could be it.

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