Hey I just recently bought an 08 grand caravan sxt and it's been great but today on my way home I noticed a sound. Kinda like a slight whine or belt squeal but quieter and only at about 1500rpm when I am off the gas it is quiet and when I'm accelerating it's not there either but if I'm cruising at any speed and engine is at 1500rpm it starts to make this faint squeal noise. I revved in neutral to see if I could replicate it and I can. It's not immediately squealing but only after a couple seconds Sitting at a constant rpm usually right around 1500 but I could also hear it around 2000 I've done some research and i think it could be the power steering filter clogged up. What do you guys think??

 

There’s not a typical, in-line filter for the PS system unless it’s been added by a previous owner. From the factory, it has a very fine mesh screen inside the reservoir to catch debris as fluid is returning from the rack, but if that were clogged enough to cause problems, you’d be hearing a very clear moaning/groaning type sound as the pump would be starving for fluid when under load.

Have you tried turning the AC on and off to see if the squeal comes and goes with that?

When is the last time the belt and/or tensioner have been replaced?

 

Yeah I tested it with the AC on and off and it did the same noise regardless of the AC. I just bought the van so I'm not sure when the last time the tensioner or belt was done but it's only 100k miles so fairly new under the hood everything looks ok. It doesn't get louder with more rpm so my guess is the PS mesh because it was only under very light acceleration at about 1500rpm
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