QuestionThank you for your suggestion, however, as I have said, changing the belts only seem to be a very short fix. In the short span of June 2003 to August 2004--my husband changed the belts 2 if not 3 times.(He bought the belts from a local after market car part store--advance auto and vip) Each time he changed the belts, the whine would go away but only for a short time. Frustrated, we were going to sell the car but never got around to it,(how could we with the whine) then our son turned 16--we asked a friend for help with the car. This time my husband went to a store that specialized in Hyundai. They changed the belts again,(July 2006) and the whine was gone and the car was running better than before. Everyone was relieved that we wouldn't have to trash the car. Now the cold has returned and the whine is back--the belts are only 3-4 months old. And the colder it gets, the louder and noisier the whine. Sometimes it whines so loud that it sounds like something is going to snap
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The text above is a follow-up to ...
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We bought a used 1999 Hyundai Tiburon FX in 2003. Shortly after purchasing it, whenever we started the car there would be one highpitch whine apparently coming from under the hood. My husband changed several belts, and the problem would appear fixed but only temporarily. The car was barely driven from the fall of 2004--until this past summer 2006, when my son turned 16. My husband and a friend went through the car to correct the whine. This time we went to a hyundai specialty store and purchased the belts from them. Amazingly the whine was gone and the car was driving like a charm, until this past week. It is now fall and getting cold and the whine has returned,(OH yeah,I am pretty sure in 2003--that my husband also changed the alternator, and other costly items. What is the problem---also the front window defrost is not working-
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Since the problem goes away when the belts are changed, we can reach the conclusion that it's definitely belt-related. The first thing to do is check the belt tension. The alternator and a/c belts must be rather tight to prevent belt squeal. In general, if you can flex either of these belts with light pressure, they need to be tighter. Typically this causes a squeal when starting the car, worse at colder temperatures.
If you've simply got a chirping, the issue could be something sticky on the belts or pulleys, glazed belts, or misaligned pulleys.
For the defrost, if the air comes out of the defroster vents but does not defrost the windshield well, you should make sure your air conditioning blows cold air and is on when using the defrost. Most American cars turn the a/c on automatically when defrost is selected, but your car doesn't, so you'll need to turn on the a/c manually.
AnswerI'm not recommending that you change the belts. I'm recommending that you check the belts for proper tension. Belts stretch over time, and if they weren't tensioned quite tight enough, they may be too loose now. If this is a squealing noise, especially bad when the car is first started, then your chances are excellent that a loose alternator belt is causing the noise.
I'm also recommending that you check the pulleys for something that may be causing the belts to make noise. If someone has put belt dressing or a similar substance on the belts, it would have transferred to the pulleys and can cause belt chirp or similar noises.
There's no question that the noise is *in some way* related to the belts. If it weren't, the noise wouldn't have gone away every time the belts were repalced. Again, I'm not saying you need new belts, but that you should be investigating the belts and pulleys to find the cause of the noise. Since the belts were changed at the dealer in July, perhaps you could take the car back to the dealer to have them look at it. I'd think that if they didn't tighten the belts properly, they'd retension them for free for you-- it's only been four months since the work was done.
