[F80_M3llow]

Anyone on here that can give me some advice of how to go about changing my belt I have 72000 miles and it\'s giving me an annoying squeal on cold start. I\'m new at this and can use some insight . Thanks

[fizzerd]

Can it not be a bushing or pulley?

[F80_M3llow]

Originally Posted by fizzerd

Can it not be a bushing or pulley?

i ruled that out it makes this crazy ugly sh sht sht noise when cold then its fine when warm lol

[Express]

try to tighten the belt with the tensioner first...

[kiwi29]

try using belt dressing as well, it could be dried out

[F80_M3llow]

Originally Posted by kiwi29

try using belt dressing as well, it could be dried out

thanks will do

[herbaljim]

Please advise if any of the solutions mentioned above works. I've had the same problem for over a year. It only happens when temperatures drop down to the 40's or so. I had the belt looked at during my annual inspection last December and the dealer said everything looked fine with the belt/tension. And of course they couldn't get it to squeal since it was warmed up from my drive to drop it off.

[F80_M3llow]

Originally Posted by herbaljim

Please advise if any of the solutions mentioned above works. I've had the same problem for over a year. It only happens when temperatures drop down to the 40's or so. I had the belt looked at during my annual inspection last December and the dealer said everything looked fine with the belt/tension. And of course they couldn't get it to squeal since it was warmed up from my drive to drop it off.

I feel kind of weird using the dressing. But I'm pretty sure it's the belt.

[mikekilpatrick]

Go onto Ebay and buy the OEM Factory service manual for 18 dollars or less shipped. It will walk you through every repair procedure on our cars...

[ENINTY]

It is most likely a bearing in one of the pulleys. The belt would only squeal if the tension was wrong. A classic belt squeal comes from the belt slipping on the surface of one of the pulleys rather than rotating the pulley, which only occurs if the belt tension is incorrect (i.e. loose). The tension is constantly and automatically set by the belt tensioner because the tensioner is free-floating and the tension is set by the coiled spring in the tensioner arm. So the squeal is either the tensioner is bad because the load of the spring is not being properly transferred to the belt (this is usually not the case), or the bearing in the pulley on the tensioner arm is going bad, or the bearing in the idler pulley is going bad. It squeals when it is cold (first started up) because the bearing has set overnight and is cold and smaller in dimension than when it warms up, which lets the ball bearings inside the (sealed) bearing races slide around rather than rotate between the races, or the bearing is temporarily frozen (or slow) and belt is sliding on the pulley surface until the pulley starts to rotate at the proper speed. Once the bearing warms up a bit the dimensions of it change and it starts working almost normally.

It is easy to check for a bad pulley bearing. Just remove the belt and free-spin both the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley. If either does not spin freely and smoothly, and is "grainy" (like there is sand in it), then the bearing is going bad.

[AlanAZ]

Is it recommended to replace the idler and tensioner pulleys when replacing the belt as it it on some other cars?

Update: I took my belt off, and spun the pulleys, and both are shot (spins easy, sounds gravelly) @ 80K mls. So I'll be replacing the lot.

[Handsome_Rob]

Mine makes the noise as well. sht sht sht sht. Makes it when its cold and when its warm. I hit the tensioner with some wd40 and it stops but only for a second. Same result with silicon spray. I feel your pain.