Deadeye

The last 3 or 4 cold starts I've noticed a squeal/ screech (not very loud) coming from the vicinity of the alt. fan pulleys. It goes away in 30 to 45 seconds and does not re-occur until next cold start. Is this an early warning sign of impending bearing failure or just a belt noise. I was hoping it was the belt sensor but it's not. Probably original parts w/ 67K on them.

black ice

Sure can be but not always. I have a new alt and fan bearing and still get a little squeal - I believe it's coming from my AC compressor. Occurs most noticably when I wash the car and put it away cold, then drive it the next day. Goes away after a few minutes of driving/warming up.

My fan/alt bearing (don't know which) got progressively worse over about 5K miles so that the noise became noticable. Was not catastrophic failure, at least in my case. When it gets noiser do get on it quickly because when that fan bearing goes your fan can start rubbing on the fan housing. Not a pretty sound and leaves a mark.

Good luck.
Dave

PS - mine made it to about 85K.