ok guys I am getting a high pitched tone coming from the front of my engine, no idea where it is coming from. I have heard squeaking belts and it did not sound like that, to me this was more of a solid tone that does not appear to change frequency but it only happens at idle. As soon as I touch the gas pedal it went away then it would return about a half second or so after it got back down to idle. I suppose it could possibly be a whistle coming from a vacuum line or something but no idea where to start looking. I was just wondering if any of you have thoughts or may know what the problem is?

Thanks

 

Start here Chris...remove your sepr belt, start the truck and let it idle and see if it still does it.
If not then it is something that runs off the belt or it is the belt.
Then with the engine off spin each pulley as fast as you can by hand and see if you can hear or feel anything out of the norm.

Sounds like a water pump to me but we still need to diagnose.

 

ok so this is a bit weird but I wanted to try to pinpoint the sound a little better, so I went out and started the truck and there it was at idle just like before, it is very hard to hear where it is coming from but it seemed like it was coming from the power steering pump. even though I knew there was fluid in it because I just topped it off the other day, I decided to check the reservoir and it was full (I have a slow leak at the steering box and refill it every couple of weeks). the strange part is when I put the cap back on the reservoir then started up the truck the tone was gone!!! now I am pretty confused, there is still a quick sound just as you turn off the engine that sounds like a squeaky car door hinge and it seems to be coming from the power steering pump as well. could I have just had too much pressure in the system? possibly over filled it a bit on accident when I topped it off? not sure if this makes sense to anyone but that's my story. also would like to point out that besides the leak I don't seem to have any problems with the power steering system and that pulley (as well as the other ones I could reach from the top access) has no play in it at all.

 

Sound to me like you are using lucas power stering fuid or some kind of stop leak fluid, with this cold weether you will get that noise from the stering pump, nothing major, just try to add some regular stering fluid and check if it get's better...

 

I had that exact same sound last winter. It was my fan clutch putting extra strain on the water pump bearings.
My fan clutch had gone bad and locked up.
Replaced the fan clutch and the noise went away.