My car has just over 40k on it, yes I do a lot of driving but it's mostly highway. I bought the car brand new in August 2006. I've noticed on some cold, wet days, on a cold start, I hear a squeal for about a half a second when the car is started from a cold start, it's heard from the passenger side of the car thus suggesting the serpentine belt may have slipped. Subsequent starts throughout the day do not do this. I've checked the belt,it looks fine, it's not cracked in any way. Is the belt slipping for a half second when the car starts due to moisture on the pulleys? Do I need to replace the belt right now or is this just a normal part of what the car may do in really cold lousy weather? I just had the B 1 Service done on the car this week and there were no problems found. Any ideas on this would be appreciated...

 

Sounds like its just moisture

 

It could be from age & heat the belt gets hard & slippery,even withoutcracks. But it seems too soon for that to happen.

It's a spring-loaded tensioner, so you can't tighten it.

 

this may be normal if you have a lot of electrical accessories set to turn on the instance you start the car, especially after the load the battery draws from the alternator on cold weather starts.