high pitch squeal at startup
 

hey fellas,

has anyone experienced this? recently, when i start up the car, i notice a high pitched squeal from the right rear. any thoughts of what it could be? do i need to be concerned? it only happens at startup if the engine is cold. and still intermittent. but when it happens, it's very loud and obvious.

Air pump? It runs when starting cold

The would be the starter motor. Search the site for posts on this. My '02 S has had this problem for about 1 year and it seems to get worse in cold weather. Not looking forward to replacement, but I believe that's the best course of action.

Is it like a loud screech or shreek? Or is it a high-pitched whine like a motor spinning, and continues anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes? If it's that instantaneous screech then go gschotland's route. If it's the continuous whine then you're referring to what Paul mentioned, and that's normal on some startups with the car.

Try removing the oil fill cap while the screeching is going on. It would be a test for excessive vacuum (bad AOS). Probably not the issue but the test is so easy it's worth a shot.

Mine did it last winter. it's been quiet for months now, but I expect it will start again. jake said it's the starter and it will eventually need replaced, but the noise isn't necessarily indicative of imminent failure.

My 99 did the same thing, and it did not do it all the time, it was the stater motor.

I recently replaced my AOS. No difference in the startup squeal. Btw, my squealing started >10k miles ago.

i just replaced my aos, so i doubt its that. been okay for a while now. but it's weird. very intermittent.