A few days ago my truck started making a slight whining noise which I thought was coming from the serpentine belt. We just had a good 6 inches of snow here and I thought maybe it just had some salt on the belt and that was causing the slight whine. Well that whine did not happen yesterday at all when I was driving it and it was a little warmer. But it got real cold last night and when I started my truck this morning it made a bad grinding noise for like 3 seconds and it idled real low like 500 like there was a load on the motor. After about 5 minutes of idling and letting it warm up the idle shot up to about 1200 rpms like it would when you normally start it. But the whole way to work it felt like I was hauling 1000 extra pounds. The truck is a 98 4.6L 4x4 with 120,600 miles on it. Any help would be appreciated thanks Zach.

 

My truck has a similar issue, when I start it when its real cold there's a grinding noise from the belt area. After I take off or give it some gas it goes away, and won't come back till the next time the trucks really cold again. I haven't had the isle issue. Im thinking mine might be needing a new tensioner and figured yours might be the same thing. Good luck

 

Yeah that's what happened it was grinding for about 3 seconds and it was like the engine had a load on it after it went away. And it felt real sluggish going to work like I was hauling something. Thanks for the reply I'm gonna have to take the belt off and have a look at the tensioner and see if the other pulleys spin freely as well. I hate freezing temps sometimes 😡

 

Yeah, I know what ya mean. Taking the quad or truck in the snow is fun, but the cold makes everything difficult. But yeah, let me know what you find.

 

I have the same noise on my 2003 5.4 liter. I was told it is the power steering making the grinding noise at cold start ups. We had -11 degree temperatures the other day and it grinded real loud but only for a few seconds. I'm not too worried about it myself.

 

Just posting an update. I replaced the belt tensioner on the truck and I haven't heard the noise since. The old tensioner felt a little rough so I think that was the problem. Just figured I would update in case anyone else experiences this.

Zach