Belt noise or bad pulley?

[djmiller109]

I have a '99 XLT and I have a few problems. The first problem I have is that I have very whistling sound when I start it after it has been parked for a while. I ca't tell if it's coming from the belt or from a pulley. Could it be my alternator pulley going bad? My second problem is that my drive side door lock keeps popping off track. I have to the door panel door to reconnect it and if I use the key to unlock the door it will pop off track instantly.When I use the remote to unlock my doors all unlock except the driver side. Does anyone know how I can solve these problems ?

 

[DR98]

Regarding the belt, take it off and run the engine long enough to determine if the noise is still occuring.

Dean

 

[Bashman]

Usually if its a belt, it will do it whenever you accelerate as well. Your tensioner might be on its way out.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Pulleys don't make noise. The bearing behind them would be thing making noise. I just had this with my alternator. It was squeeking for a couple of months until the front bearing blew apart. The belt got ruined, and the alternator's rotor collided with the stator. You could imagine what that sounded like! It happened a few miles away from home after 12 at night. I pulled the belt off, and connected my booster pack to the cigarette lighter to drive home. I had to boost my battery with a small, portable generator. I keep a lot of emergency things like this in my van. It's almost 19 years old.

 

[marragtop]

Take the belt off and spin each pulley to listen for sound and unusual drag. Make sure you check the tensioner as they are known to go bad and it's an easy and cheap fix.