i also have this type of noise but it seems that the car will do it when it pleaes cuz i can go days w/o it doing it. its also like a noice as if letting air out of a baloon. but mine will do it when it idles cuz i like if i rev it a tad it will go away but then as soon as i let off the gas and it goes into idle it may do it again. i also had someone turn it off and stuck my head under the hood and it came from around the same areas as mentioned earlier. i was going to change belts but since it didnt seem to work for AIRBOY. the car only has 34K miles hmmmmm im kinda stuck on this also

 

Hmm...sounds alot like what my car is doing...if it idles long enough it'd become a contiuous noise. Rev the engine just a little and it goes away until the RPM settles again. With 34k miles you should take it to the dealer to have them look at it. If you do, please post the results.

Sunny

 

Another update...I think it is the timing belt.

Tonight I took the valve cover off to replace a badly leaking cam plug. While I had the cover off, I noticed that the timing belt would make a squeaky noise if push on it even a little. From the side or straight down from the top, it makes that rubber-on-metal squeal.

Maybe when the car is shut off, the tension on the belt lets up and the belt slips a little on the gears and make that short squeak. It sure doesn't take much slippage to make it squeal.

Now a question about the tension in the timing belt...how much should there be? Mine didn't seem to have much at all. I can push it side ways and it slips easily. Pushing down from the top, it deflects easily.

 

The tensioner is a smooth roller (no teeth) that rides on the smooth outside of the belt. There's a spring pulling it against the belt, but there's a bolt that's supposed to lock it in place. But the squeaking might be a bad bearing in the tensioner. The waterpump pulley has teeth, so it shouldn't slip on the belt...

It almost sounds like your tensioner is loose. Here's how to work the tensioner:
Loosen the tensioner bolt (thru the lower timing cover). Turn the crank counterclockwise a little bit. (3 or 4 teeth on the belt.) This moves all the slack over to the backside of the belt so the tensioner can take up the slack. While you hold some torsion on the crank pulley, tighten the tensioner bolt to lock it in place. You're supposed to do this ever 20k or 30k when you adjust your valve lash.

The timing belt shouldn't be as tight as your alternator belt. You should just be able to twist it 90 degrees in the middle of that long span down the front - between the exhaust cam & the crankshaft.

 

Jim
Thanks for the input. To access the belt tensioner bolt, do I have to remove the crank pulley and belt cover? If that is the case, I may as well replace the belt, too.