Squeal from front of 3.6L

Some background... I was getting some high pitched "squeals/chirps" from the front of the engine after driving for awhile. Nothing at cold start and only would hear it if I was stopped at idle. It may be happening when driving but I can't hear it if it is.

I sprayed a little water, noise went away, so I thought it was the belt. Replaced the belt and was good, but then it came back.

Replaced the two idlers and tensioner assembly and was good, but then came back. One of the idlers had some wobble to it so I thought that was the culprit but, apparently not.

After driving 20min or so I sat in my driveway at idle and cycled the A/C, turned the steering wheel (P/S pump), turned on the heated seats (Alternator), etc to see if I could hear any difference in the noise. No change.

Water pump, perhaps? I may yank the belt and feel the pulley to see if there is any lateral motion detectable. I've also heard of belt alignment issues on these engines. Usually turning on the A/C would detect that, however.

I have a video of the noise but it's too large to load. I'll try to edit it down so I can get it attached...

Uploaded the video to YT:


There are no other indications of anything wrong while driving, although I need to determine if it goes away with other conditions when not moving (higher rpm in park, D but with brakes engaged, etc) .

Let me know if anyone has thoughts!

Chris said:

Must have been a server issue. I was working on the server yesterday and this may have been a result of that.

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I had a reply to a different post show that it was from today but the post was from months ago...

JerryD said:

What brand belt did you use? I try to stick with gates. Did you try the water test again on the new belt? Do you have a mechanics stethoscope? In a pinch, a rolled up piece of paper to the ear may work. Unless you can isolate the noise, it will be hard determine the fix.

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Yep, Gates belt. I am going to try the water test again and also look at the crank pulley to see if there are any signs of the elastomer shifting. I have read about misalignment issues stemming from this.

5.0rick said:

Did you ever find the culprit? Having the exact same noise on my 2022 Gladiator Rubicon.

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Unfortunately, no. I've been living with it as an annoyance, although fortunately, it's not my primary vehicle.

Outside of this forum I've had others swear they had the same sound and _____ fixed it (choose one):
Belt
Idlers
Tensioner
Alternator
Water Pump
A/C Compressor
Crank Pulley
PCV Valve

I did the first three already, but don't want to keep throwing parts at it. Stethoscope hasn't been helpful in narrowing it down. Interestingly one gent on a FB group had a similar sound (he provided a sound clip) and it occurred in similar operating conditions. He ended up taking his to the dealer and they diagnosed it as the PCV Valve which fixed his problem. Who would've thought? Consistent with this engine, it's not a 5min job to replace the valve so I haven't tried that yet.

We're in the midst of prepping our house for sale so nothing will probably get done for some time.