Battery light and squeaking when turning wheel completely

Hello-

Been having a strange thing happen when I start my truck. I have a 98 V6 and when I start the truck and turn the wheel all the way the battery light turns on, there is a loud squeaking sound, and the steering wheel wants to snap back. However, as soon as I turn the wheel slightly back towards center it all stops and the light goes away. There is never an issue driving it. I am going to be changing the power steering fluid which will hopefully help but it seems like there is something else going on. If anyone has any ideas or has had something like this happen to them any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Are your belts loose?

 

You have a slipping belt. Either loose, glazed, or both.

 

If the battery light comes on AND the power steering doesn't work then he probably has 2 loose belts. At least that's how it is on my truck, 1 belt per component.

 

Good call. I took a quick peak and found belts listed as PS / fan and Alt / fan and assumed they were all on one. Seeing the diagram makes more sense, and you’re right.

It might be 2 belts as you say, but I’d also be suspect of the pulley slipping on a failed rubber damper on the crank pulley. A good look should figure it out.

 

Thanks for all the responses and yeah that makes sense. The part that I thought was especially weird was that it only happens when the wheel is turned all the way to one side. When I go to check what should I be looking for? I just got the truck in October and have been learning how to wrench since then.

 

The squeal is either a belt or a normal pump sound. The battery light comes on because your RPM falls (reducing alternator output) when the power steering pump drags the motor down.

check and set belt tightness, then just don’t bind the wheel so hard. It’s very hard on power steering components to lock them out like that.

 

yeah that all makes a lot of sense. I think I may just go ahead and get new drive belts for it since I have no clue how old these ones are and when they were put on. Unfortunately the guy I bought it from didn't keep great maintenance records. I figure it's better to spend some money now and know how old they are rather than get caught without power steering somewhere

 

If you’re doing belts, give the tensioner and idler pulleys a check. I swap them every time I do belts since they’re cheap and tend to have crunchy bearings pretty often