My wife drives a 960 and we had squeal that turned out to be a frozen timing belt idler pulley.

Now, I don't know much about Volvos other than 960's, but I can tell you what I saw on my wife's.

If you remove the timing belt cover and look at the pulleys guiding it along they should look clean-ish ...

Hello;

I am querying on my Wife's 1996 960 (again), but this time with a much less serious problem :)

The drive side seat is, of course, motorized. The right hand track seems to, at random intervals, jam up. This can be fixed by removing the seat, releasing the spring drive (it's a rubber tube ...

After I got to thinking about it, there is something else useful that should pass along. How to isolate the squeal...

Long story short my wife's 960 had been making this noise for about 10,000K and it was getting progressively worse until it became a howling screech. If yours does this, don't drive ...

Well, Saturday was Volvo repair day.

It turns out that the front end squeal was indeed coming from the timing belt assembly. It was the idle pulley. The poor thing had seized solid and was spinning no more :-( Further, the tensor pulley was both noisy and spinning rough, but was at least working ...

Thank you! Again! ;-)

I just posted a question asking about my alignment marks... as I couldn't clearly see the crank mark.

The engine is still together so I'm not sure if all the bearings are in there, but like I said, metal shavings everywhere, so I suspect not!

Also, the squeal is really ...

Well, it turns out that my engine squeal (previous post) is most likely the timing belt idler pulley. Take that cover off and the squeal jumps out smacks you! :-)

So... it is time to change both pulleys and the belt while I am there.

Now, before I yank the belt off I want to make really sure I ...

Thanks for the reply.

Well, I pulled the cover without any trouble and notice both pullies had meatal shavings on them.

While I can't say this is unexpected for a 120,000k motor... all the same, the replacements, and a new belt, are on the way

Thanks again!

Ken

Hello;

I am looking for some help with my wife's Volvo. It is a 1996 960 sedan with about 120,000 miles on it. It has had every major (and most minor) services done and runs really well for a 100,000+ motor.

However, it has developed a squeal at start-up. A very loud one!

Here what I know so far ...