squeaking/chirping noise, not coming from pulleys?

[meg224]

Well I could say I'm not car illiterate but I'm no mechanic, I need some guidance or suggestions for my 1998 3.8L stang. I recently drove down from Pennsylvania to Alabama for the summer, for an internship for school. For the past month I noticed a squeaking / chirping noise getting louder and louder. This is completely random. It goes from a soft chirp to a really high pitched; it's just all over the place. There is no constant squeak.

It does not matter if the engine is cool/hot, a/c is on/off, at idle or going 60mph. I cannot link this obnoxious squeaking noise to anything. Along with this I noticed missing antifreeze. I found that to be a weep hole on the water pump, so that was already replaced, so it had nothing to do with that, because it still squeaks/chirps as it did before it was replaced. The belt is like new and in really good condition, checked for glazing and just wear and cracking. The power steering fluid was also checked, no problems with that.

I had the belt off to check the pulleys, thinking most likely it would be the tensioner or the idler, and it's not. I work at a mine site, and I had a handful of mechanics looking at my car and they are just as stumped as I was. We used the whole stick/stethoscope thing, and what we KIND of could hear, is the squeaking noise coming from the distributor area. Can this be it? Has anyone ever heard of this?

I'm not sure what else to do.

Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated

 

[rock4451]

i know how frustrated you must be. drove my car around for a week with squeaking under my hood, so i WD40'd the crap out of all my pulleys and tensioner, squeak went away and came back about a minute later. finally 4 days later when i was holding the r's at about 4k my dad told me to shut off the engine. took a look and the smog pump pulley was froze

 

[FrankenStang]

Year? Auto or manual?

Need to know more about the car.

 

[rock4451]

didnt mean to cut that off so early, but anyway i have no idea how my belt didnt snap on me after driving it (and beating on it, of course) for about a week. now i just bypassed it with a shorter belt bc in illinois we dont have emissions inspections. coming from the distributor? i have never heard of that. best of luck

 

[meg224]

i know how frustrated you must be. drove my car around for a week with squeaking under my hood, so i WD40'd the crap out of all my pulleys and tensioner, squeak went away and came back about a minute later. finally 4 days later when i was holding the r's at about 4k my dad told me to shut off the engine. took a look and the smog pump pulley was froze

hm well its something else I could look at. All I know its soooo annoying and I wish it was easier to pinpoint

 

[meg224]

Year? Auto or manual?

Need to know more about the car.

1998 3.8L Auto

 

[MustangLX-5.0]

In the distributor area? Just FYI , 3.8 Mustangs don't use distributors. Only the 94-95 5.0's have them. V6's have EDIS coil packs. I will assume you were referring to the coil pack (it's the rectangular shaped device with the plug wires attached.). The noise wouldn't come directly from the coil pack since there are no moving parts. Items in the coil pack area that may squeak, chirp or squeal when damaged or worn out... AC compressor, compressor clutch, Camshaft synchronizer (plugged in behind water pump on timing chain cover) , tensioner pulley (it may not create a noise when spun freely but start when a load is applied) , and last, Idle air control sensor. IAC, is located on the throttle body on the very top. It's rare for it to squeak, but it does have a small motor with a very fine pinion gear and a plunger that are controlled by the PCM. I've heard the thing squeak on several occasions untill I removed it and cleaned the garbage out and sprayed lube in it.

Oh and one other thing, The 3.8's don't have smog pumps. I know a couple model years have electronic smog pumps but not the belt driven pumps that are found on 5.0L mustangs.