Ok so i posted in another thread about problem i had with oil gauge going to zero and they said check my sending unit and stuff well i havet had problem with that since i looked into it and now my problem is my engine is making like a chirping sound every couple seconds. if ur looking at the motor from front of car its on right side where the sound seems to be coming from? its a 1995 camaro z28 that just had head gasket fixed. any body have an idea of what the chirping sound is? To me almost sounds like something is sticking then it comes loose and makes the noise when it frees itself. It is not a knocking noise though just to clarify that.

 

Take the serpentine belt off and run it for a few seconds and see if the sound goes away. That will help narrow down the possible issues.

 

Best case its the belt or one of the pulleys. Worst case if it's not gone with the belt removed is a bad bearing.

 

Possibly a very loose rocker if you still have the stamped steel ones. The valve stem will ride up on the outsides of the self aligning portion of a stamped factory rocker if its loose enough, then slide back into the aligning groove, causing an oddly enough high pitched chirp. If you've got aftermarket 1.6 pro mags, its more than likely the rocker is scraping against the supports of the valve cover and need more clearancing.

 

Might spray some wd40 on the belt as the engine is running very gently.see if that helps.Might be the power steering pump going south.could be the air compressor bearing,or the belt tensioner to.I would just go nuts spraying everything till the noise stops.But thats just me.My 02.

 

Umm..bad idea to spray a lubricant on the belt and pulleys...unless you're going to replace the belt.

Like any problem, start with the easiest and most obvious first. Remove the belt and run the engine...no squeak, no problems internal to the engine. Stop the engine and spin each driven component by hand....the alternator and idler should spin freely with no obvious vibration or 'rumbling'. The A/C compressor pulley should also spin freely but with the magnetic clutch it can 'feel' different. You'll see what I mean when you spin it. The power steering pump willbe harder to spin but you can check for excessive play by pulling and pushing the pulley in the direction of the centerline of the shaft and in the direction the belt runs.

Bottom line, the problem is probably either the idler pulley or the belt. If you find nothing in any of the components, switch to a goodyear gatorback belt and I'll bet the problem disappears.

 

Yep. Just make sure you don't run the engine for very long like this. No more than a minute, and less if it's already warmed up.

 

Actually, you should be OK with a little longer than a minute as the water pump is cam driven and not belt driven...

 

Why? Lt1 water pump is driven by the cam, so the only thing you're not doing without a belt is charging the system, which can easily be fixed by putting it on a charger.

 

I didn't know that. Okay, so you have more time, especially if you're on a high-amp charger that can keep up.

Don't drain the battery and then charge it up later. That's really bad for the battery.