Q: Car makes a screeching sound when I turn the steering wheel.

asked by on October 17, 2016

Car makes a screeching sound when I turn the steering wheel, like something in the car is rubbing together. Happens mostly in cold weather.

My car has 180000 miles.

Hi there. This sounds like a loose/ out of adjustment power steering belt. With the engine off, visually inspect the belts for looseness, cracking, and tears. The belts should be free of those and feel tense when attempting to pull to check for looseness. If the belt is loose, it may need to be adjusted by loosening the adjusting bolt/nut moving the adjuster to the desired tension and tightening the nut/bolt. Then restart the engine and check for the noise. YourMechanic has several available technicians that can assist you with an inspection of the turning noise and can move forward with a drive belt replacement if required.

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