belt and alternator problem?

Hello! Once again I am reminding you all that I know next to nothing about cars, and changing my own battery and umm whatsitcalled.. air filter was an accomplishment for me. So. Lately, whenever I turn on my car ('specially when it's real cold) an ungodly screechy animal being tortured sound is emitted from under my hood, and only stops after driving it for 1-3 minutes. Besides embarrassing, I'd like to know what it is and if its connected to my other problem.

A driver I work with, who knows a bit about cars merely due to his age told me that the reason my car is somewhat loud in general, is my alternator. How do I confirm/deny this myself?

TIA

get a new alternator belt and see if it goes away. its pretty easy to change..

oh wait do you have i4 or v6?

Sorry, I should be told you, I just got a new alternator belt put on. I think I have a v6

you think you have v6? lol
did you tension the belt right?
does it squeek more when you turn the steering wheel?

i dont know, i dont think the alternator would make a squeeking noise but im no expert..

I don't know what tensioning the belt means.

It doesn't squeak more when I turn the wheel, its just a minute or two after ii turn on the car, either leaving in the space, or driving, but when I hit the gas it gets louder until it stops entirely.

i would suggest goto a shop.. alot of times when someone knows nothing about their car trys to work on it they make it worse, imo

I am having the exact same problem on my i4. I am hopefully going to try and tighten the belts tomorrow and see if that helps. Its a tremendously embarassing noise and from what I've been told is its either loose or the belts are going, but my belts are only a few months old so I know its not that. Its gotta be to loose.

sounds like the bearing in your alternator might be gone , try taking the belt off if it is loose and run the car for a couple of minutes if the noise disappears the alternator is shot.

So the squealing could be a bad alternator? My belts aren't particularly lose, didnt get a minute to tighten the bolt, but they feel tight. I hope its not a bad alternator.

Uh oh! Different problem. I got a flat tire today and my tire wouldn't come off! I undid the bolts, tried WD40, a few guys stopped to try to help and tried hammers, yanking it really hard, one guy stuck around for about 45 minutes but nothing.. So I drove it across the street to a shop with a note attached.

remove the lug nuts, and lower hte car slowly with the jack. once u get some of the car's weight on the wheel it should break loose. then bring up the car. don't drop the car you need to be gentle.

Done it.. no luck.

some times heating the bolts with a propane torch will expand the nuts around the lugs and they will come off.

I took it to a mechanic and they used a sledge hammer and a crow bar to take the tire off. labor+tire=93 dollars.

did u have them figure out the squealing?

Yeah sorry, loose belts.

Gotcha. Guess when it stops snowing/hailing/sleeting here in OCTOBER?!?!?! I will get under the car and tighten the alternator belt and the other ones

Same thing on my 4 cylinder. I don't know when the belts have been changed last, I just bought the car a week ago. What should I do first, tighten the belts? Or get new ones? Mine squeels when it starts up as well for less than a minute though. When I rev my engine pretty high it stops (?)

Should I buy a new alternator belt or an ac/power steering belt first?