Engine Compartment Squeal

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Sep 4, 2004 | 12:13 PM

mrogers

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Joined: Aug 2003

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From: Minnesota

Engine Compartment Squeal

I have a mystery squeal coming from the front of the engine, and I'm not sure what's causing it. The squeal starts as soon as I start up the truck, but the squeal goes away after 10-15 minutes of driving. I thought at first it was the water pump going bad, but there are not coolent leaks, and nothing coming out of the weephole. The belt is new, replaced about 3 months ago, could be the belt tensioner, not sure though. Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

1993 Bronco
351W
116K Miles
6" Suspension Lift
35" BFG's

Sep 4, 2004 | 02:55 PM

jacque_strap

Senior User

Joined: Mar 2004

Posts: 182

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From: Canada

Broncos are known to have pulley misaligment problems. Causes serpentine belt to squeel. I believe they are all self tightening (correct me if I'm wrong) so you might have to try some of the spray on stuff that "supposedly" makes it stop. Best of Luck.

Sep 4, 2004 | 03:22 PM

JBronco

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Joined: Jun 2001

Posts: 2,809

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From: Loveland, CO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacque_strap

so you might have to try some of the spray on stuff that "supposedly" makes it stop.

Belt dressing. It DOES work, but once you spray it on once, you have to do it about every week after that. The only way to fix it permanently is to replace the belt.

However, since the belt is new, it is probably not the belt itself but rather it could be the tensioner not holding the belt tight enough, or a squealing bearing in the tensioner pulley or one of the other accessories (could be the ps pump, smog pump, water pump, or alternator).

It is hard to pinpont this. Especially with the serpentine belt, you can't just pull one belt at a time to narrow it down. I had a squealing problem on mine, I did the tensioner pulley first since it was cheapest and easiest; still had the noise, so I did the alternator and that was it. It wasn't a very old alternator either.

I gotta love the serpentine belt though - when you want to change it it takes five minutes and hardly any tools (just a wrench to push the tensioner pulley down) and then you don't have to worry about any belts for quite a while. I just did mine yesterday for winter.

Sep 4, 2004 | 05:08 PM

BOJOFASO

Elder User

Joined: Apr 2002

Posts: 813

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From: NJ

im going to throw my 2 cents in hear. i also had the squeal and in the end the cure was a new fan clutch.

Sep 12, 2004 | 09:13 PM

mrogers

Thread Starter

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Joined: Aug 2003

Posts: 11

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From: Minnesota

Well, it was the Idler Arm Pulley. Nice and easy fix, just the way I like it.
Although, the original pulley I had had ridges on the sides of the pulley, to help keep the belt aligned I suppose. The replacment, had no ridges. All my pulleys and the belt are in alignment, so I'm not too concerned about lack of ridges on the idler arm pulley.

Thanks for all your help guys