Right after I start up my Jeep I hear squealing from under the hood for about a few seconds. After I drive maybe 100ft it peels off and I dont hear it anymore. It's not consistent yet.

I was thinking moisture on the belt or worst case might be the alternator bearings but then I was thinking that it would be consistent if it was the alternator.

Any clues as to where I should begin to look.

 

I would start by replacing the serpentine, cheap and easy... if that doesn't fix it it could be one of the bearings going out

 

if the belt is good i would check to see if it is tight enough, i had the same thing happen and a buddy tightened it up for me as i havnt had to mess with it yet and wasnt aware of the manual tension set up.....havnt had a single squeal yet after that

 

Tighten the belt.

 

also make sure there isnt any kind of oil or anything leaking on to the belt

 

Mine has done it 3 times since I have owned the jeep....and my belt is tight and no fluids are dripping or on the belt....not sure why it does that...but like you said....it goes away after 100ft...but kinda embarrassing! I have owned the jeep about 3 or 4 months....

 

It could be the idler pully bearing. My jeep only had 82K miles on it when I bought it and the pully was bad. I think it was like 10 bucks at Autozone.

 

Dumb question incoming. Where do you tighten the belt on this thing?

 

No questions are dumb...Its under the power steering pump...Tj

 

Does anyone have a photo because I'm convinced that what is in the Hayne's manual does not match what is under my hood. 2001 XJ.

The reason I'm asking for clarification is because hayne's is saying to tighten and loosen a bunch of other bolts that I don't see on my XJ.

 

yea mine did the same thing. but most of the time its when its really cold out.

 

if you are starting it up while the a/c is on the belt may squeal while sitting and on take off. mine does the same and i noticed that when i start it up and it sqeals if i turn the a/c off it stops if i turn it back on it happens again. but when mine does it it goes away about 100ft as well.

also idk about your years model under the hood. but on my 89 xj, tightening and loosening the belt i had to loosen about 4 screws and there was one adjuster that was also a screw, took me awhile to find them. but they were there.

 

^^X2 that was my problem

 

I just swapped mine..

There IS a writeup with pictures on how to remove the belt and replace it.

Check the pullys, take everything off and check, most likely either loose or a pully is loose. Mine was my Alternator (bearings) it had frozen up

 

Anyone have the link for the writeup?

I probably need to replace the belt anyways. It looks like it's getting small little cracks on the ribbed side. But I think it needs to be tightened.

I did notice that it didn't squeal when I started it up without the AC on.

However when I switched it on it didn't start to squeal.