i've lately had a belt making some awful noises, as belt often do. i think i figured out what is causing it. it seems that one of my belts (although tight) is rubbing the black plastic ?timing belt cover? and cutting a hole through it. it doesn't seem to be damaging the belt but it sounds awful. thanks for any advice or comments

Not sure if there's a fix for this one. Might try a new pulley, but who knows. The pulley dampeners are known to rot out and fall off so, better to replace it and see then find out later that you're pulley was flexing and getting ready to fall off.

Is it squeeling all the time? My PS belt got installed too loose and it glazed the belt causing it to squeel on start up no matter how tight I got it. Had to replace it with a new one again.

Make sure all the bolts are in the cover. When I got my Talon the upper cam gear cover was missing and there were no bolts holding top of the cover on. This caused the cover to rub...never made any noise though.

This is on a 97? This isn't a symtom of CW, is it? I guess a lot of the 1g's have similar problems with the belts cutting though the timing cover.

I had a problem with this. It turned out to be a bend in that metal mounting plate for the cover and a missing bolt. The cover was forced out about 1/4", and caused the belt to chew on it.

Just tore apart a Laser N/T that had a timing belt snap. I found the hydraulic tensioner bolts loose which allowed the timing belt to rub on the timing cover. Likely doesn't apply to your situation because I could not see a timing belt squeeling but for some reason I felt the urge to comment.

it's not a crankwalk issue. i'll re-check the bolts to make sure that they're all there. from what i could tell the plastic was flexing out towards the belt. i'm not sure which belt is actually making the noise...i'm just assuming it's the one hitting the cover.

yes it starts howling when i start my car but wears off when it warms up

Sounds just like mine, I bet you that you replace the PS belt your squeeling goes away. Check the side of the v belt, if it's shiny...replace it.