My 99 Ranger develops a belt squeal which I can only eliminate by replacing the belt, dressings do not help.
I have replaced the tensioner idler with no success, pulleys appear to be in good shape, and I am on my third belt in less than a year.
I was wondering if anyone else has come upon this problem.
( The truck was 3 yrs old when I purchased it, and I don't have much of a history on it)
Thanks,
Ed

 

Welcome to FTE, Ed!

I think it's OK to assume that the belt is not the issue. You say you replaced the tensioner so we can assume that is OK, too. Alignment of pullies and/or bad pulley bearings is where you ought to focus next. Here are some comments out of my Ford Manual on the subject:

 

Buy a motorcraft or gates belt. Remove your current belt and clean all of the pulleys real good. Put on the new belt. Seriously, clean ALL the pulleys REAL good. A lot of people say that many aftermarket belts are slightly shorter than stock and cause a problem. Gates are supposed to be better than most, followed my motorcraft of course. Doing this got rid of my reoccuring belt squealing problems, so far anyway (and it's been a while).

 

I bought my 99' used as well and have had the same issues. The belt dressing works if I give it about an hour or so, it squeeks like hell right after putting it on but starts to subside after about 30 minutes and then goes away completeley after about an hour. It usualy lasts about 2 months or so, then I have to reaply the belt dressing again. It may not be the perfect fix, but was the easiest for me, like yours my newly replaced belts would start to squeel after a few months. My pulleys and tensioner were all fine, this works so unless something grenades I am not going to just start randomely replacing parts. From what I have read on this board this is a very common problem that Ford should formerly address, there have been so many people here with the exact same problem -

 

I was able to resolve 99% of the sqeal on my '99 3.0L by installing a Goodyear Gatorback belt. This replaced a new Motorcraft belt that squealed like a stuck pig almost right out of the box.

 

I tried the gates & the goodyear gator back, they both started squeeling on mine after a few months...

 

I like the rundown Rockledge posted.

If the belt is chirping, it's likely an out of alignment accessory pulley. So remove the belt & check for tightness of all the accessories mounting bolts & the quality & tightness of their bearings.

If the belt squeels, it's slipping because it's not tensioned enough, or has coolant, power steering fluid or engine oil on it & or the pulleys, or has an accessory thats locking up, causing too much drag, so look for any leaks close to the belt's running track & turn all the accessories, tensioner & idler pulleys by hand to see if any are suspect.

I can't determine from your post if you replaced the belt tensioner assembly or just it's pully.
I've seen bad parts right out of the box, so I'd not rule that puppy out yet.
Those springs can break, even though new. If the tensioner wasn't replaced I'd take a close look at it's spring rate, may be weak or broken.

If you find leaks, your gonna have to fix them, degrease all the pulleys & replace the belt.

If it's not saturated you could try soaking it in some "Tide" & keep it under seat, for a spare.

I just replaced my 99 4.0L origional equiptment belt at 43K miles & 5 years, with a Dayton poly cog.

I swear I think it's quieter, wasn't looking for that result, it just seemed obvious right away, so I believe it's real.

We'll see if it lasts as well as the OE belt, which is still ok, just begining to show some fine cracks accross the ribs. I have it under seat as a spare.

Let us know what you find.

IMHO, belt dressings just treat the symptom, they do nothing to fix the root cause, so I don't use them.

Something is protesting & telling you things aren't right. Best tend to it before things break bad & leave you stranded or worse.

Just some thoughts from the peanut gallery.

 

pawpaw - I have run through all of the particulars with mine. No leaks, no miss-aligned pulleys, no ruff metal burs on pulleys, pulleys have been cleaned, motor is clean, no oil or coolant leaks, have replaced the water pump recently, the tensioner seems to be working fine (I have not chekced it for the exact poundage of tension), but it's not the culprit, I have tried difrent brands of belts - this is not my first 3.0 I have had a ranger with a 3.0 since 93', I know my way around this engine, the pulleys are all fine -this is just a POS ford design, alot of people have this problem with the 98 and newer 3.0's - this should be something that ford should recall and fix, but that aint gonna happen. Several people have had difrent fixes for theirs, I have checked mine out thouroughly and after replacing the belt (that was a few months old and did not need replacing) several times I tried the belt dressing on a fluke and it worked. Unless something grenades I will not touch it, I am sick of jacking with this problem and refuse to just start replacing parts that are not bad to chase down the squeel. The belt dressing works so why mess with it beyond that?

 

Most people say that belt dressing makes it worse in the long run. Makes the belt slip and eats away at it slowly. Almost everyone I asked about belt dressing said that when they used it, the noise came back worse. Duh . Seriously, I tried lots of different things. I finally just took the time to clean everything real good and put on a Gates belt. That was many many months ago, and I haven't heard a noise since. And the 3.0 isn't a POS because the belt squeals, come on. If it's a POS it's because it's underpowered in the ranger
Good luck...

 

Maybe you miss-understoof my statement. Something in the design of the newer 3.0's is a POS. That something being whatever in the design is causing many of posters on this board to have a chronic belt squeel. My 93' I drove for 183k miles never had this problem. My 99' has had this problem on and off for about 40k miles, I bought this one used with about 20k miles on it, have replaced the belt about 8 times now. Sorry but in my opinion, that rates as something in the design being a piece. My truck always been maintained properly. I don't let stuff just go, I have checked several angles on this. My engine and pulleys are all clean and aligned. As far as the belt dressing wearing down on the belt, well by using it twice now on this belt I have not replaced the belt so that saved me $$$. Heck another couple of months and this belt will have actually lasted a whole year, unlike the others that were replaced before that. As for the gates belts I have put about 5 of those on, there was no difrence in the gates or any other brand I have tried. Once again I will state that this problem is one that is from something poorly designed, weather its the tensioner, the pulleys, whatever, so many people on this board have posted with the same problem - that IMHO constitues a crappy design somewhere in that bely/pully system on that year of the 3.0 motor. I wish like heck they would just recall and fix the GD problem, rather than leave it to the individual to try and figure out what the culprit is and try and fix it. As I stated earleir several people have founds several difrent fixes for their belt sqeeling issues with their 3.0's. Some replace the tensioner and it works, some do this and it soes not, some cleand and sand all the pulleys and this works, soem do this and it does not, some replace all the pulleys and tensioners, ect, ect. There is no one for sure fix for this problem, wich goes back to what I originaly said - something in that design is a piece!!!!

 

In my previous post I forgot to say welcome to FTE Ed.

Which engine do you have in your ride???
How many miles on it???

Did you replace the complete tensioner assembly or just the pulley????

Do you have any fluid leaks near the belts routing????

Do you have any rough sounding or feeling accessory bearings????

 

I had the same problem on my 96 Ranger, however my Belt would eventually slip over one notch.
It turned out my WaterPump bearings were gone, which allowed the water pump pulley to wobble.
Had to replace the water pump, fixed the squealing though.
Just an idea for ya... althought 99 sounds too young for that problem

 

Just to clarify, my 98 is the 4.0L and it had the squealing belt, as do quite a few other 4.0's. It's not just the 3.0. Usually the cause is the tensioner. Anyway, I was just stating my experience, no need to get all worked up man! Just trying to help out

 

I have the same on my 94 302 f 150 no problem at all, but after a good rain it will squeal ever so slightly.I do not puddle crash. In fact I try to avoid it as much as possible I only have 86k on my 302 could it too be a tensioner pulley or something other?

 

I've not yet experienced this aggrevation, but if & when it comes, high on my suspect list would be a weakened spring in the tensioner.

Think about it, this spring is under constant load 24/7 under all kinds of weather & load variations.

So it's metal "hardening process" must be right on the money when manufactured.

Too hard & the spring is brittle & will break with constant flexing, espcially at the extreem cold temps.

Too soft & it will "give" some, easing the proper tension, such that it may not be visably noticeable, but enough to slip some when damp, wet, or when it or an accessory is suddenly put under load.

My 94 Taurus 3.8L tensioner has a molded in range guage, so you can visibly see when the belt tension is within proper value. This way you know when the old belt is streached too much, or the tensioner has weakened after installing a new belt, as the marks won't be within "range".

So Waves, this could explain why you can change your belt & have it quiet for some time before it gets noisey again.

As the belt runs it streaches some, if the tensioner spring has weakened over time such that it can't take up the slack of the streached belt to maintain the proper tension range, it can begin to slip a little under load.

Spraying a little "dressing" on the belt may change the belts surface friction just enough to make it stop squealing, until the dressing wears off & she begins to squeal for more dressing.

Just my thoughts on the subject.