Well, I just replaced my belt and belt tensioner because my car makes a screech when I start it, and this is after replacing my starter which I thought was the original problem, the car still screeches but now it's acting funny. It will idle at it's normal 1000rpms but it will keep surging up to 1200-1300 rpms, I drove it around the block thinking it would go away but it still surges, I made sure all my intake pieces were on problerly, and I tried removing the IAT to see if it would run any better, I thought maybe my Accell 300+ ignition took a crap but I removed that and nothing happened. Does anybody have any ideas?? The only other thing I can think of is after I put on the new belt I washed the car, and with the motor running I lightly sprayed down the engine bay and wiped it down, no water got on the opti-spark so I can't think of how that would affect it. This car is giving me a huge headache!!! Also no check engine light or anything. The car is a 97 formula with 46,000 miles.

Thanks for any help!

 

Remove the belt and see if you still have the screech. That will tell you if the screech is related to any accessory driven by the belt.

 

Cool, I'll try that, any idea why it would start to idle funny though? Thats what I'm really worried about.

 

If it has something to do with your alternator, it might cause that.

 

Cool, in the morning I'll start it up with no belt and if the idle problem is fixed I guess I will get a new alternator. Thanks for your feedback I really appreciate it!!!!!!!!

 

Don't jump to conclusions. It was just a suggestion to help isolate the problem. If the alternator is suspected, get it tested.

 

I was thinking, if the MAP or MAF got a little wet or their connections got wet could it cause this problem? One time I took of my intake and didn't hook it back up right and it did something similar to this, so I was thinking maybe the MAF got wet. Is there any way to check these parts? I don't have any time to work on my car other than tommorrow morning so I'm trying to think of all possibilities, Alternator,MAP, MAF etc.
Thanks

 

I had a similar screech on startup, which got worse when a/c was turned on or under heavy engine loads. Turns out it was my harmonic balancer. The outer disc was spinning around the inner disk until the rubber between them heated enough to catch . It's easy to check for -- just use a paint pen to run a line across a radius of the hub. Then start the car, wait for the screech, and turn the car off. Then check if the paint marks you made show that the outer disc has rotated in relation to the inner.

 

Well, I stopped the funny idle, I cleaned the throttle body with carb cleaner, made sure the intake was really tight, and i let the battery sit disconnected over night to re-set the computer, (I guess thats just one of those things i'll never explain), as soon as I get home from work I'll try starting without the belt, and if that dosne't work I'll try what kyle97 said.

Thanks for your help guys!