Hey everyone, I have a 96 XH ute. Being an XH, it obviously has a serpentine belt. Since yesterday afternoon, every time I start it up, for a second or two I get this kind of intermittent squeak noise. It's not a full on belt squeal because while it's happening there's gaps of silence in between the noise.

It only lasts for a few seconds on start up, but it's pretty annoying. Anyone know what the go with this is??

The other issue I've had is that I changed the oil in the car about 3 weeks ago. I put Penrite HPR 15w60, a new z9 and a new oil pressure sender. The line was on the full mark for a few days (I knew the ute had a slight leak from the sender when I bought it, so I kept checking it). Eventually I trusted that the ute wasn't leaking oil and hadn't checked it until yesterday.

The ute has gone from full to OK. This, in my opinion, is a fairly substantial loss.

Now, I'll be honest, since having the ute and trusting that it's mechanically OK, I've given it a bit of curry and I drive it daily, I have done for the past 3 weeks. Combine that with sitting in hot weather during peak hour traffic and the temperature can get to M on the gauge (it never gets to M when I'm giving it a bit, only in traffic).

Could this heat and me driving it hard be the reason for it to be losing oil?

I'm not sure if the cam would effect the oil consumption but it's a very lumpy cam...

When I've got a chance I'll take the plugs out to see if I can find any oil on them.

Thanks in advance!

driving it hard or a big cam shouldnt have any effect on oil consumption, unless your constantly at redline..
normally it will only go 2 places, past the rings or from a leak somewhere.

Nowhere near redline (well, occasionally )...

I can't work out where it would be leaking if it's not the sump or the pressure sender. It blows no smoke so I am doubtful that it's the rings. I'm gunna take the plugs out and have a look anyway, it's annoying though, I don't have a proper place to work on the car and it's too low to get a hydraulic jack under it, so I have to use the scissor jack -.-