Hi all,
My 2012 GTI with about 115k miles started making a pretty bad squeal on light acceleration a few weeks ago. I have scoured the forums and have come up short of finding a solution to this particular noise and am hoping that someone here may be able to help! Here’s a video that shows the squeal I’m talking about.
In order for the car to make the noise, the AC has to be on and I have to be accelerating from a stop. It happens in forward, reverse, and when turning as well. The only thing that makes it not happen is turning off the AC and sometimes accelerating a bit harder. Even when the AC is off and it doesn’t actually squeal, I still hear a low gurgling noise, which you may be able to make out in the video.
I removed the serpentine belt the other day to see if any of the pulleys or the belt was bad. The alternator pulley spins just fine. The AC compressor pulley didn’t feel “chunky” or rough like a failed bearing, but it didn’t rotate as smooth as the alternator pulley and felt more like it was spinning on a plastic bushing rather than a bearing. Also, when I released the tensioner pulley, it didn’t release smoothly but felt like the spring was a bit stuck maybe. It still puts tension on the belt, but when I went to release it, it jerked instead of smoothly rotating out of the way. The belt looked fine to me.
If anyone has any thoughts as to what the source of the squeal may be or some other troubleshooting steps I can do to investigate, I would greatly appreciate the help! Thanks!
My 2012 GTI with about 115k miles started making a pretty bad squeal on light acceleration a few weeks ago. I have scoured the forums and have come up short of finding a solution to this particular noise and am hoping that someone here may be able to help! Here’s a video that shows the squeal I’m talking about.
In order for the car to make the noise, the AC has to be on and I have to be accelerating from a stop. It happens in forward, reverse, and when turning as well. The only thing that makes it not happen is turning off the AC and sometimes accelerating a bit harder. Even when the AC is off and it doesn’t actually squeal, I still hear a low gurgling noise, which you may be able to make out in the video.
I removed the serpentine belt the other day to see if any of the pulleys or the belt was bad. The alternator pulley spins just fine. The AC compressor pulley didn’t feel “chunky” or rough like a failed bearing, but it didn’t rotate as smooth as the alternator pulley and felt more like it was spinning on a plastic bushing rather than a bearing. Also, when I released the tensioner pulley, it didn’t release smoothly but felt like the spring was a bit stuck maybe. It still puts tension on the belt, but when I went to release it, it jerked instead of smoothly rotating out of the way. The belt looked fine to me.
If anyone has any thoughts as to what the source of the squeal may be or some other troubleshooting steps I can do to investigate, I would greatly appreciate the help! Thanks!
