Explorer loud squeaking on cold start...SOLVED

[scott38]

My truck is a 2004 explorer Limited 4.0 FFV. There is a loud squeak/ squeal sound coming from the pulley/belt area that I cannot figure out. The squeak only occurs when the car is cold and only lasts for about a minute, then it goes away abruptly and everything sounds normal. It sounds like a slipping belt maybe, but there is no change when i spray the pulleys or belt with water. Here is a video of the sound:



In the video I try moving from pulley to pulley to try to isolate the sound but it is difficult. Seems to be coming mostly from the water pump area but difficult to say for sure. As you can see in the video I have removed my radiator fan/clutch so that is ruled out.

I have taken the following steps but the squeak still persists:
-New Belt, new idler pulley, and a new tensioner pulley/assembly.
-I removed the radiator fan/clutch
-When I spray either side of the belt with water the squeak is still there.
-when I take the belt off the squeak is not present.
- tried the screwdriver to ear method to listen to the various accessories but the squeak seems to be in the pulley system somewhere

There is no change when I turn the AC on in the car. There is also no change when I turn the steering wheel, which would put strain on the power steering pump. Anyone else have this problem before or recognize this sound??


Any ideas??

 

[scott38]

So I changed out the water pump and the noise is gone now!!! just wanted to follow up in case someone runs into this thread in the future. Bought a cheap stethoscope and was able to narrow down the sound to the internals in the water pump.

 

[03Explo20]

Did it start that loud or did it work up to that point? Thank you for sharing and bringing this to our attention!

 

[scott38]

Did it start that loud or did it work up to that point? Thank you for sharing and bringing this to our attention!

I didn't notice it until it was at this point. Seemed to come on pretty quickly and got worse pretty quickly once it started.