It was raining here yesterday and I inadvertantly left my lights on my 89
Westy when I returned to work after lunch.  When I walked out to the parking
lot 4.5 hours later I saw that the lights were on.  Luckily for me the main
headlights are cut off if you remove the key, so I was hoping that I would
still be able to start it since the parking lights were only on a few hours.
It did start right up, but I immediately heard a loud screeching noise
coming from the engine compartment.  I cut the engine off and restarted it
and the loud noise returned.  I left it running and walked to the back for a
better listen.  The noise was very loud and I decided to cut off the engine.
I started it back again, got the same noise, and decided to give it a little
gas.  The noise got quietier so I did the same thing again.  A little
quietier again.  I cut it off one more time, gave it some gas, and the noise
disappeared and hasn't returned.

I assuming leaving the lights caused this to occur since I have never heard
this noise before.  Anybody have any thoughts on what really happened?  Is
this an indication of a particular part(s) going bad?  I don't want to find
myself being unable to jump start the van if I inadvertantly leave my lights
on again.  The van only has 57k miles on it so there isn't an excessive
amount of wear on the parts.

Thanks for your help,

Steve

89 Westy
Richmond, VA