I too have this problem with my 02 p5 I've thought it was the alternator bearing, but the alternator checked out good, thought it could be a bad tensioner pulley bearing,. As with everyone else it gets quiter after warm up or in neutral given gas, it has new belts and did it before they were replaced too. I've been told to get a small plastic tube about 2' long and place it against where the sound is coming from to pin point the noise to help see what needs replacing, haven't done this yet, but the noise is driving me nuts and has made this noise since late April and about 6,000 miles. Deebacx

 

easy solution to figure out if its the belt take the belt off start the car if the squeel is till there then its oviously not a pulley or a belt if the squeeling quits then put your belt on but bypass the a/c. if its still there bypass the alternator, then water pump ect. until you find it yes you can run your car without the belt for short tests but dont run it without the belt for 5 min or more

 

Well, I had taken my new belts off the other night and cleaned the pulleys and examined what I could.There was a bunch of brown dust all on the belt and pulleys which I think is from the A/C clutch.It is embedded in the threee pulleys (crank, A/C,Powr sterring), but I don not think that was the problem on my Protege.I reinstalled the belts and I did make the Alt. belt alittle tighter than it was and the belt squeal did not happent today.We will see how it goes.Maybe the new belts just needed to be readjusted after acouple hundred miles.

 

A few months back we noticed my car started squealing a little when it was cold but as soon as it warmed up a little it was fine. We assumed it was time for new belts and would eventually get around to it.

A couple weeks ago my alternator took a crap on me so we had it rebuilt and installed along with a new alternator and power steering belt. After the car was brought home we thought everything was gonna be fine.

The next morning when I started my car it was squealing something awful. I had figured if I rev it up a little it would pass. To my surprise it didn't go away at all. I proceeded to go ahead and pull out of the driveway and start driving. The squealing stayed just as loud and embarrassing. Even at 50 mph in 5th gear the car was still squealing. I was eventually able to put car in neutral and when RPMs dropped down below a thousand it finally stopped.

It seems as thought it squeals most when its cold, but not always. Sometimes stopping the car makes it stop, sometimes not. Sometimes if the defrost is on and we turn it off it will stop immediately, but sometimes not. We called a mechanic over today to tighten the belts thinking that was the problem and he said the belts were tight and that it is the ac pump bearings. I have a hard time believing this since it is not always related to the ac or defrost being on.

I've had this car since I bought in 2003 and there are 98,500 miles on it. Other than batteries and tires this car hasn't given me any trouble til now...

Any help would be tremendously appreciated!!!

 

besides the rubber hose trick, an inexpensive mechanics stethoscope does wonders.
It has a long thin metal tube so you can safely keep your hand away from moving parts.
Mine still squeals after replacing the belts, will have to wait for warmer weather.
99 Protege - over 160,000 miles

 

OK-Thought I posted my results somewhere on this sight, but maybe I did not.Someone else had this same problem and tried something different.I was beating a dead horse so to speak with belt tension and new belts and could not rid myself of the problem untill I tried the following suggestion.The other owner determined it was the alt. pulley where the belt was slipping and I believed that was where mine was slipping.He pulled the alt. out and pulled the pulley off and mounted it to a lathe or somethig to spin it and sanded the grooves with emery cloth to roughen them up.I could not do this so I did it on the car and turned the pulley by hand while pressing the emery cloth in the grooves.It was hard to reach in there and do this.Since I have done this a few weeks ago I have yet to have any more squelling from the belt.Just my experince.This seems to be a common problem on these little Mazdas.This is my first and just bought it in August and the belts were brand new on it when I got it and it squelled.

 

newyota: your post deserves "sticky" status.

The idea was originally posted by a bloke from down under or a kiwi.

Tan

 

I purchased an 02 protege 5 with 185k and now just over 200k. It squealed when I bought it (thinking no big deal, just a belt). Ha ha. After Replacing alt 2 times and went threw many belts I could always get it to stop just after I changed the belt. Sometimes 2 weeks, sometimes 2 months would go by and start squealing again after every replacement. All of my pulleys moved nice and smooth (so it had to be a belt). I then noticed rubber shavings on my alt so I blew it out replaced alt belt again. I then tightened the belt much tighter than previously. Prob about like what Ems00Protege said. It quite for about 1 year and just started again (just on start ups for a couple secs). So I did my timing belt and water pump today and figured I would do a little research on my squealing prob. I was reading on another forum that the factory mazda belts are suppose to be better. I'm going to try that and emery cloth on the alt pulley. Hopefully that will salve my squeal.

btw if you change your belt and it starts squealing after a couple of days or weeks. Try to tighten as soon as possible (so it doesn't mess up your belt more) put a half to full turn more on. If it starts to get better put a quarter or half turn on. This is just my experience with this car, I am not a certified mechanic. Hope this helps

 

Like many have stated on the post, I have notice my squealing happens when it is misty, foggy, moist or wet weather. After, 10 seconds the squealing stops. I have
noticed when the car is warm is never squeals. I don't know if it is the pulley or
the tensioner but I do need to figure it out before the belt breaks.

 

responses to noise is not the belts, if the belts loosen and become part located under the engine and the camshaft pulley with your hand try to turn it loose and you will see that it makes adjustments when a press belts side, that makes metal approaching other causing noise. the problem is with my Mazda Protege 2003. adjust the straps and the noise continued, that caused the water pump will be damaged
2003 mazda protege pulley - Buscar con Google