Don't put soap on a belt. That just helps it slip more easily, thus making it seem quieter. Soap is a bad idea, same with WD40 that I have seen mentioned on other threads.

 

I agree with broken wire. The Goodyear Gatorback belts are of a similar design. Autozone has them for $30.

 

Haven't had time to look into a lot of the stuff mentioned yet, but thanks for all of the suggestions. I have, and knowing it is bad, used wd40 in the past to quiet down when it was driving me CRAZY and that worked all of 5 minutes. WHat would cause the glazing of the belt and pulleys to where they would need to be scuffed up with emory? would this be result of a poor quality belt? or a bad tensioner?

Thanks everyone

 

Bad tensioner or stretched belt.

 

The glazing comes from when a belt has been on too long. The belt gets worn smooth from going round and round the pulleys for a long time. When the belt is smooth it slips, when it slips it smooths the pulleys to the point that the belt can't keep a good grip on the pulleys. A new belt will help most of the time but sometimes the pulleys are just too smooth and the new belt will start slipping. WD40 and soap just accellerate the slipping and smoothing. Whenever you change the belt its always a good idea to use emory cloth on the pulleys. Every pulley the belt comes in contact with, grooved pulleys and smooth pulleys. the smooth pulleys are a lot easier to emory. You have to get between every groove on a grooved pulley. The crankshaft pulley is the hardest. You can't turn it by hand so you have to emory it from up top and from below.

 

Armour All, WD 40, or soap on a belt? ACK!!! Belts require friction to drive and any of these products will lessen or eliminate friction! I had the same problem and cured it with a new Gates belt (from NAPA) and cleaning all the pulleys with brake cleaner. The back side of the belt drives the water pump pulley and this is most likely the cause of the squeak. Lubricating a belt that drives the water pump is a disater in the making ie: motor melt down.

 

Is it safe to assume that if the indicator on the tensioner is in the acceptable range that only the belt needs to be replaced? and of course the pulleys emoryed.

 

NEVER put belt dressing or armor all or the like on a serpentine belt!! never! i used to have the common belt squeal too. know what i did 1.5 years ago? i put on a goodyear gatorback instead of those cheap pieces of crap for $4 at the farmer's market, and it hasn't made a noise again.

 

Never changed a belt before, is it pretty easy to do? To relieve the tension to get the belt off do you use a wrench actual pulley bolt? Turning to the left or right? someone mentioned something about that above, not sure if it directly relates to just removing the belt. Thanks I am thinking of changing this out this weekend.

 

Get a big breaker bar and a 5/8 socket. connect to the idler pulley bolt, pointing the bar striaght up or to your left just a little to get plenty of leverage. Push down on the bar as far as it will go (alternator should stop your travel) with your left hand, and slip belt off of idler pulley with your right. Release the tension on the pulley bolt. Remove belt, noting routing as you remove. If you forget the routing, look at the sticker under the hood for belt routing. Its very easy, takes about 5 minutes to remove and 10 minutes to install. The belt does not need to go over the fan to remove or install. Hint: start by getting the belt on the crank with all the slack to the left (passengers side), take the top of the loop and wrap it aroung the waterpump (feels weird to wrap it backwards, but is correct.). Then go around the steering pulley, and the A/C. On the left side go around the air pump pulley to the alternator. Now, the only thing left is the idler. use the breaker bar and push it down agian with your left hand,(make sure that the belt is below the socket end of the breaker bar when you start, it is a tight fit until you push down) and slip the belt back under the idler with your right. release, make sure the belt is in all the grooves in each pulley, if not release the tension on the belt with you left and adjust with your right.

Hope this helps. I can just about do this blindfolded.

 

I've had excellent luck with the Goodyear Gatorback. Lasts forever and never makes noise.

 

Thank you to everyone! I am gonna go buy a gatorback and hopefully take care of it this week.

 

I changed it today, Was easy to do thanks to everyone. Gatorback and haven't heard a squeak yet.

 

there was also a problem with the power steering pump pulley being ou just a hair... I have had the "squeak" for years, but only when cold or damp.

 

I just put on a new $27 Dayco "Poly Cog" belt, runs quiet so far. When I had the belt off I checked all the pulleys, tensionser and idler for problems. Everything looked good. I had replaced the idler before and it did not cure the problem. I did notice that the old belt was not stretched at all and looked perfect, but it was very hard and you could see glazing in the grooves.

Jim