Hey Guys,

First off, Ashley's 1996 Talon (base model, non turbo) is still running great. However, there are a few things I'd like to ask you guys about that are concerning me.

1. Squeaky belt. I would like to think it's just the serpentine belt, but yesterday (it was raining, btw) Ashley and I were sitting at a stop light and we started hearing what sounded like a squeaky belt. Just a constant squeaking. Then when the light turned green and I started on the gas, the squeak quickly went away. Any ideas on what caused this? Do I need a new serpentine belt? Or is this possibly a different kind of issue? I heard the same thing happening this morning when Ashley started the car, so I assume this might not be something that's going to go away on its own.

2. Leaking oil. Everywhere she parks for more than 30 minutes, there will be a greasy stain under the car. This has been going on ever since we bought the car almost 2 years ago. Does anyone know any common places the leak may be coming from? The weird thing is that in a 3,000-4,000 mile span, she really only loses maybe 2 out of 4.5 quarts. It seems like she's leaking more, but in reality it's not a horrible leak. My cavalier actually burns more oil than that between oil changes.

Some things I should say about the car: It never over-heats, ever. The engine was steaming when we drove to adventureland this summer but I think that was just due the oil leaking onto something hot. The car never appears to lose coolant, or at least not in any significant way, as I have only needed to refill the coolant once in the 2 years we've had it. The heat in the car works okay. It doesn't get incredibly hot, and it takes longer than most cars to get warm. (It takes her about 10-15 minutes to get to work and on extremely cold days, the heat doesn't get much better than lukewarm)

From what I was told by the dealer who sold me the car, the car came into their dealer with a blown headgasket. So they replaced the headgasket approximately 2 or 3 years ago from now.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm just trying to guage how much longer this car is going to last before we're going to need to get a new one. Everything has been the same with the car for the entire 2 years except the belts squeaking that just recently started. I thought serpentine belts usually just got cracked and brittle when they needed to be replaced, that's why i'm asking.

Zac