Starting Squeel and No Luck From the Dealership

A couple of weeks ago I had the coolant flushed and the serpantine belt changed at the local tire shop (who also does routine maintenance). I picked up my truck and there were no problems.

The next day I had to go an appointment and when I started my truck, it let out a loud screeeaaaach. The noise was so loud, my neighbor actually came over to see if something was wrong. I shut the engine off immediately, opened the hood and had the neighbor start it up for me. It started just fine, no noise and I could not determine what the problem was. I took a look at the belt (Dayco brand) and it looked fine, not oiled up or anything. Since it was starting fine, I drove it the rest of the day, starting it another 3 or 4 times with no problems. Before going back home, I took it back to the shop that had done the work and the mechanic said it was a cheap belt and that it was most likely that.

For the next two mornings I started it up and i would get the same screach noise. At this point I decided to take it to Toyota to have them look at it, so I dropped it off that afternoon and explained the problem and also asked them to look at the TSBs for the chirping blower motor and the harsh ride.

Two days later I get a call from the Toyota dealership with the news that they did for sure hear the noise I was talking about, but it doesn't last long enough for them to pinpoint where it is so just come back in and pick it up. What????? I repeated what he had just told me and was wanting to make sure that I understood that they have decided that they didn't know where to start at so they just want me to pick it up and be done with it. Surprisingly, that was the answer.

So what it sound like to me is that they had a couple of guys standing around it, started it up and scracthed their heads, not physically taking off the belt and checking pulleys or what not. I made the suggestions of the low quality belt, idler pulley, tensioner pulley and also the non-sealed pulley bearing that I have read about here on TW. All answers were, "No, it couldn't be that".

Saturday, the dealer's customer service called and asked about my experience. I told them the situation and that I wasn't happy about it.

Today I get a call from the dealership again and they wanted me to call Toyota and start a case. This would mean they would send an engineer out to take a look at it. So I did. We'll see what we get out of this trip.