Belt squeal

[Camo Ranger]

Hey this is my first post on TRS but I've been a fan for a while now and I've read through a ton of forums on here for advice. I was hoping someone could give me some advice with an certain annoying issue I have...

I bought my truck a year ago this past september. Once the weather started getting cold the serpentine belt started squealing. At first it only squealed when the truck was cold and then it went away once everthying warmed up. Then, as winter progressed, it started not going away and getting louder and louder. Once spring came around I replaced the idler pulley (had about a quarter inch of play in it) and then later the serpentine belt itself. Both times the belt squeal went away for a few months. However, now the squeals back and once again it seems to be getting worse and worse as time progresses. I'm thinking its probably the auto tensioner, but I don't wanna go spending $60 on something that doesn't need replacing (poor college student funds). Any advice? Also, if I do replace the auto tensioner, should I replace the belt too (thinking gatorback)? Thanks in advance.

 

[Big Jim M]

I'd be taking the belt off and messing with the auto tensioner.. I'd prolly find that the tensioner needed replacing.
Just because you have a bearing squealing is no reason for replacing the belt.. Them things last well over a hunderd thousand miles..
Most times when one of the idler bearings goes south it is time to replace them all. The actual bearing in them is a rollerskate bearing! Many of the idlers and tensioners can be pressed apart and a new bearing installed by the owner..
The noise you have been hearing isn't the belt! It is a worn bearing rubbing against the grease seal...usually anyway.
Big JIm

 

[srteach]

my 99 ranger just needed a water pump to stop the squeal. Check all the pulleys for wobble. The belt is squealing because of a speed differential between the belt and a pulley. You have to find the reason.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

I don't know my belt started squeeking something horrible and it was the belt... it had gathered bits of rock and sand in the belt that finally became too much and it would squeek against the pulleys. Then it started a little chrip awhile later i tried some belt dressing... BIG mistake! It sounded as if i had tied 100 live mice by the tail to the belt and every time it went over a pulley they would shreak. I cleaned the stuff off and it still squeeked so i put my old tensioner pulley in place of the larger idler pulley and the squeeking stopped. apparently my tensioner was tightening too much.

 

[joe.dollar]

My last squealing belt problem turned out to be the camshaft position sensor. Be sure to check into it.

 

[McCormack]

More often than not belt squealing on the 3.0 engine usually turns out to be a misaligned tensioner pulley, so before you do anything put a a straight edge on your tensioner pulley to see if it's alignment with the crank pulley. If it's out of alignment you can save yourself some money by shimming the tensioner back into alignment.

 

[Bankrupt]

I had the same problem a few months back. We replaced the belt and it ate it a few miles down the road. Turned out to be a worn tensioner. New tensioner and belt and its been fine ever since.

 

[Camo Ranger]

Ok, so I know the last post in this thread was about a month ago, but I didn't want to go starting up another thread.

With my grandfather passing away and the holidays I haven't had much time to go messing with my truck. Well I finally got around to pulling the belt off the other day and listening to the engine. With the belt off the squealing noise goes away. Put the belt back on, its starts right up again. So I figure might as well replace the tensioner seeing how you damn near have to stand on the thing to get it to move to get the belt on and off.

So I replace the tensioner, put the belt back on, start the truck up and...squealing. Great

Start messing with the pulleys. I notice that I can push the power steering pump pulley towards the engine about an inch. The pulley isn't moving by itself, it's the entire shaft going into the pump. Idk if thats normal or not?

On another note, remembering that the truck is louder when its raining or snowing, I take a handful of snow and throw it at the front of the radiator. Sure enough the truck starts to squeal like a barnyard full of pigs. This lasts for like three seconds and then quiets down again. I repeated this a couple of times with the same results. WTF?

Anyone else had this problems? Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also, joe.dollar suggested looking into the cam shaft position sensor. How would I go about checking that to see if it needed replacing?

Thanks

 

[McCormack]

My condolences in regard to your grandfather passing.

The power steering pulley shouldn't move that much, but as long as it's aligned with the rest of the pulleys it probably isn't the cause of your squealing.

The 3.0 serp belt tensioner is poorly designed, and even a new one can be out of alignment and cause the belt to squeal. The only way to know for sure is to put a straight edge on the tensioner pulley and see if it's in alignment with the crank pulley. If it's not then you'll either have to shim the tensioner, or else buy a brand of tensioner that is in alignment when installed (I shimmed my stock tensioner so I can't help you with which is a good brand of new tensioner to buy).

 

[basketranger]

my personnal feelings are any time you have what appears to be a belt "noise" is pull the belt manually handle every pulley for excess movement, and what i have termed spin ability. (locked up, stiff, deflection) if any thing not right then fix if not check belt for age, uneven wear (kind of like a tire) or shredding. then may replace belt.

 

[babytruck]

Belt dressing or buy a new one.

 

[Doug Metheny]

i have the same problam bud and iv tried the belt dressing new belt new pullys everything and she still makes the noise but iv gotten used to it. ye siv done the throwing snow in it to show the guy at the auto parts store

 

[FL_forlife33]

cps sensor

i'd check into the cam synchronizer... i heard that makes a squeak when it's gonna go, and when that goes, you lose your entire engine eventually. i heard they don't always throw CEL's either...

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

CPS is on the back of the block, right behind the upper intake, its like an electronic distributor (where the dist. would have been on pre obdII 3.0ls) and when it goes out youll be bummin.