84 El Camino 305 OK guys I have an odd one for you. The squeal noise is definitely outside. Temperature related. Seems like anything below 3540° every time I stopped at a red light or a stop sign then go to takeoff. I get to squeal maybe only for a couple seconds and then it goes away and I won’t get it again until I come to another stop sign or a red light of course everybody right away says oh it’s probably a belt squeal. I thought it was the AC clutch bearing so I took the AC belt off this weekend and this morning it’s 28° here every time I stopped and went to pull off and just a normal pool off I would get to squeal for maybe 3 to 5 seconds. It’s not very long and then of course if I let off the gas it’ll stop also but all that’s left in the system is the air pump the alternator power steering and a course the thermal fan clutch now like I said probably later this afternoon when it gets about 40 or 50° out here it won’t do it at all and it won’t do it if you put it in neutral while you’re driving and try to give it gas it won’t do it either. See what you guys think.

 

That's a classic power steering belt squeal when cold. The pump is stiff, the belt is cold, and the load from turning the wheels at takeoff causes it. Spray a tiny bit of belt dressing or check the tension.

 

Thanks for the reply but I think I might have cured it yesterday afternoon. I tried tightening up the alternator belt maybe just a quarter of an inch tighter and I haven’t had the problem yet and this morning the temperature here was 18 so it should have done it all morning and it didn’t. I’ll let you guys know how it goes when I drive it a couple more times in this extreme cold, we have.

 

Welcome to the forum. If it comes back, you should post your question in the El Camino section of the forum where you will get more views. This is the Welcome New Members section of the forum.