I just recently moved to the mountains in NC, up close to the Tennesse border. We have had a couple of bad snow storms, not to serious though. I have noticed on my 06 stx 4x4, when i crank it up in the morning or anytime of day after its been sitting for a long while in the cold that it makes a loud screaching sound that doesnt sound normal. It doesnt make this noise except when it is real cold outside. Is this bad and what kinda damage if any can this cause to my truck. These cold cranks are usually in 20 to 35 degree weather. Does anyone else notice this problem in cold weather?

 

My belt squeels some in cold damp weather, just for a minute or two though. Never took it in, because I am sure it would not do it for them

 

As JDWheels points out, it's probably the belt slipping. The easiest way to fix this is to remove the belt and check it out for glazing (or cracks). If the belt is good, clean all of the pulleys with some sort of degreaser (I use Simple Green for this sort of thing) and dry them off with a towel. If the belt was good, reinstall it. If not, replace it. I have used this approach on lots of cars and once the pulleys are clean (assuming the belt is not glazed), it usually doesn't slip. FWIW, I have had bad experiences with any sort of belt dressing so I don't recommend it. I laugh when I think that we used to spray WD-40 on squeaky belts when I worked in a garage. It does work, for a while. Then it just comes back worse.

 

It is not unusually for the serpentine belt to squeal on start-up in extremely cold weather (zero and below) . My 04 FX4 SCAB has been doing this since it was new. There is not detectable damage to the belt of pulleys and the truck has 34K on it. Living in the Chicago area it sees a lot of cold weather.

 

One would think warranty should take care of the replacement