Squealing noise on 2006 HHR
 

Hello. My wife's HHR is making a squealing noise. It's a 2006 LT with 2.4L engine and has slightly over 82,000 miles. It appears when engine has warmed up and is not really greatly affected by revving engine but will change slightly with increased RPM's. The noise appears to be coming from passenger side of engine so I have replaced alternator and belt tensioner assembly. Does not matter if AC is on or not, so that ruled out compressor bearing. I am going crazy trying to fix momma's baby. Thank you in advance for any suggestions/cures!

Additional information; car runs fine (except for the horrible noise).

Hmmmm, water pump, maybe?????

thanks for the reply. Is water pump on passenger's side? Is it high or low on the engine. I got a response from another area recommending that I run without belt to eliminate all accessories. Will do that tomorrow after church.

meeks, another possibility might be the electric fan, since you don't hear it until the engine heats up, and RPM's don't seem to directly affect it.

When you turn on the A/C, the electric fan should start working. If that is any help..

Also the water pump is on pass side up near the top, it kinda mounts inward, as the enclosed timing Chain spins it..

Success! I am ashamed to tell you all that my problem stemmed from a bad belt. I can't believe that I didn't replace this first, but hindsight is 20-20. The fact that the noise was not affected by RPM's certainly confused me, but a lesson learned here. Thanks to all that chimed in!

Thanks for the update.

Glad it turned out to be minor, and you were able to solve the problem.

I was gonna ask how the belt looked.....:propeller:

What belt?
 

This has a timing chain, so no timing belt. It has electric power steering, so no belt for that, either. So, how many belts are left and what do they turn? Is there just one serpentine belt, and that failed here?

Alternator.

Most new cars only have one belt. On the HHR it runs the alternator and the air conditioning compressor.

When you change the belt, you might want to change the tensioner and and idler pulleys.