Your fan belt is screeching due to the alternator having a greater load.

Cheers,

MJS

At 08:54 AM 2/19/99 -0800, Steve Macaulay wrote:

>It was raining here yesterday and I inadvertantly left my lights on my 89

>Westy when I returned to work after lunch.  When I walked out to the parking

>lot 4.5 hours later I saw that the lights were on.  Luckily for me the main

>headlights are cut off if you remove the key, so I was hoping that I would

>still be able to start it since the parking lights were only on a few hours.

>It did start right up, but I immediately heard a loud screeching noise

>coming from the engine compartment.  I cut the engine off and restarted it

>and the loud noise returned.  I left it running and walked to the back for a

>better listen.  The noise was very loud and I decided to cut off the engine.

>I started it back again, got the same noise, and decided to give it a little

>gas.  The noise got quietier so I did the same thing again.  A little

>quietier again.  I cut it off one more time, gave it some gas, and the noise

>disappeared and hasn't returned.

>

>I assuming leaving the lights caused this to occur since I have never heard

>this noise before.  Anybody have any thoughts on what really happened?  Is

>this an indication of a particular part(s) going bad?  I don't want to find

>myself being unable to jump start the van if I inadvertantly leave my lights

>on again.  The van only has 57k miles on it so there isn't an excessive

>amount of wear on the parts.

>

>Thanks for your help,

>

>Steve

>

>89 Westy

>Richmond, VA

>

<bold>

Michael J. Sullivan

</bold><italic>Director of Catalog Design

Open Market, Inc.

</italic>

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