Happy Holidays, everyone! I found this group just this week and it's about the best thing that's happened to my attempts at DIY maintenance and repair.

Now, to break down my situation. I own a 2000 Ranger 4 x 2 with the Trailhead package on it. I recently had the serpentine belt replaced by a shop that I trust. Ever since the belt was replaced, I get the infamous high pitched squeal on cold start up. The squeal increases it's frequency with engine RPM's, but disappears when the engine warms up.

I happened to be in the shop last Tuesday and mentioned the problem to the Service Manager. He told me it was probably the tensioner and that they frequently go bad. I had checked the tensioner out a couple of weeks prior and noticed that while the tension was in the acceptable range, it was in the lower acceptable range.

This morning I checked out all of the pulleys and did a couple of checks on the belt, (push it down, try to twist it around). It passed those tests. The one thing I did notice was that the idler pulley had about 1/16th" of play in it back and forth. I have checked the belt and it seems to track fine.

I'm hesitant to think that the play in the idler pulley is causing the squeak because I can't think of why the noise would go away after the engine is warm. At this point, my guess is that the belt is slipping when it is cold which causes the squeak. As the belt warms up, it increases it's grip over the pulleys, ceasing the slipping and therefore also the squeaking. So, my question to all of you is what you think about my analysis and whether or not you would recommend replacing the tensioner or what?

Thanks for your help and sorry for being redundant. Now, back to the merriment!

Judge

 

I'd personally replace the tensioner, its a 5 minute job and at least where I got mine, about 30 bucks.

Believe me it doesn't take much of a slack difference to cause that belt to start slipping - and it only gets worse and worse.

I've got the '00 Ranger 3.0 Liter and my idler pulley also wobbles back and forth to some degree, I may go ahead and have that replaced when I next service the serpentine - around 100,000 miles.

Watch out for the tensioner brand, I went to Shucks the first time and the replacement part did not work right, I went to Napa and their much cheaper replacement part was as close to the factory model as I could see.

 

Welcome to FTE Judge Holden.
Putting on a new tensioner would be a preventative maintanence move at this point.
The question is, were the pullys de-glazed when the new belt was put on? It's a simple proceedure that is often skipped by hurried mechanics. Just a quick once over with emery cloth and a little spray with brake clean freshens the surfaces up to reduce slippage.

 

Welcome to FTE and happy holiday to you too.

I would just make sure none of the other components feel like they have bad bearing when turned by hand with the belt off, then replace tensioner.

 

If there was no problem before they changed the serpentine belt, I would venture a guess that it's probably the belt itself. It could be off alignment by one groove, or possibly the belt is too wide. Also, I read if you allow the tensioner to snap back quickly when replacing the belt, you can do damage to internal parts of the tensioner. But my strongest suspicion would be the belt. I have had trouble with auto parts stores and some of their non-conforming parts. If it's an original Ford part, then I would be more inclined to think of the idler or the tensioner. My son has a Nissan pickup that squealed when cold and quieted down as it warmed up and it was the serpentine belt.

 

I have to say look at the belt on this one. Don't know what they put on there but, people on here swear by the gatorbak.

 

I take back what I said, thought you had the squeak with the old belt too.

 

Thanks for welcoming and for your responses. The garage that replaced the belt was a Firestone garage. I try to do as much routine maintenance as I can, but I currently live in an apartment and I'm a student with limited tools so I make do.

I wrote down the markings on the belt that I could see yesterday to do a little research. Apparently the correct replacement belt is 88 1/2" long and 6 ribs wide. The replacement belt has the correct number of ribs and the markings are as follows:

6PK2250 885K6 282

I assumed that the "885K6" refers to 88.5" and 6 ribs, so I think the replacement belt is correct. I had been suspicious of the belt's quality, but during my conversation with the Service Manager, when he quoted me the price to replace the tensioner, he said he would only put on a tensioner obtained from the dealer because he didn't trust the aftermarket brands. Whether that concern for quality replacement parts carries over to their drive belts, I don't know.

I forgot to mention that when I inspected everything yesterday, the pulleys all looked clean. However there was a small spot of gunk on the idler pulley about half the size of a dime. The remaining exposed pulley surface looked clean.

For what it's worth, I started her up this morning about 6:30 and I would guess that the temp outside was maybe a few degrees above freezing, no squeaking. I'm tempted to believe that it is the tensioner going bad for the following reasons:

1) As I mentioned, although the tension indicator is within the specified range, it is near the low end of the range both when the engine is not running and when it is running at idle.

2) I know that springs under constant compression/tension will eventually deform to the point that the tensioner would be bad.

3) I suspect that upon cold start up, the engine sensors automatically crank up the rpm's to warm the engine. This puts additional force on the tensioner and the cold belt which would be prone to induce slipping, and therefore squeaking. As the engine warms up, the rpm's come down and the belt also warms up and is less likely to slip.

Thanks for all of your help and for welcoming me. I think I'll go ahead and replace the tensioner. Do any of you think I should replace the belt while I'm at it, or could I save myself the extra $20-30 and continue using the one that's one there? It's probably only got about 500 miles on it.

Thanks again,

Judge

 

If you got the money go ahead and replace the belt, but I only would if it looked bad.

I did all the same guessing, calculating and worrying that you did when mine went out. I live in an apartment and its not easy to work on a truck in that environment - neighbors don't like your junkers in front of their place.

If you've got good tools its no chore, but I forked over the cash and bought the serpentine belt changer bar just to make my life easier - but I'm not a student on limited budgets.

By way of comparison, my belt only squealed when I went through puddles and the like prior to me changing the belt. After changing the belt it began to squeal all the time - and I had the dealer change the belt too! So don't necessarily fault the place you went to, if the dealer can screw it up, so can the independents.

I looked at it from a practical standpoint, everyone pointed to the serpentine, it was simple to fix, it probably needed changing anyway, and to fix it I had to remove the belt. While that was off I might as well go ahead and look at the pulleys and whatnot. Either way changing the tensioner was the best place the start. My alternator pulley is a little squeeky too, but compared to the engine idle it turned out to not be a problem.

 

You could try cleaning all the pulleys with solvent and some fine sand paper, wipe them down good to get any grit off when your done.

 

Hi and Happy Holidays! I have the same vehicle as Judge does. And the squeaky belt. BUT, mine is quiet at startup and only gets noisy AFTER it warms up. Doesn't matter if the day is wet or dry, hot or cold. The belt is quiet at startup and gets very squeaky after about 3 minutes. And it stays squeaky. I don't notice it during acceleration, but it may just be drowned out by engine noise.

Belts are 6 months old (previous owner had independent mechanic change them) and they only started squeaking 2 weeks ago.

Should I follow the same advice given to Judge or could this be something different?

Thanks!

 

I would clean and check the other components out.