Thread: Dumb belts!

This is a really stupid... dumb... question, but it's tickin' me off so I figure before I drop any more money, check myself.

A few months ago, my coolant elbow burst (not leak... burst). Coolant ehrwhere. Obviously resulted in a squeaky belt, so I replaced both serpentine and sc belt. They both needed changed soon anyway, so why not? All squeaking went away and my car was back to normal. Then came Hurricane Sandy. I worked from home during the hurricane, so I didn't drive. After weather cleared up, I started car as normal and it was squeaking again, but more of a chirp. Happens every time I drive when engine is cold. If it's hot, no squeak.

So, I'm thinking its the idler or tensioner pulley. Not a big deal to change. When I took off the belts before, I checked them and didn't notice them being hard to turn or any squeaking...so I'm really not sure.

Is there any tricks/tips of finding out which pulley (if it is a pulley)? Obviously I can figure out which belt it is by taking one off and starting car for a second, but... I really don't want to go changing pulleys one by one until I find it. I've always heard never touch the stuff, but maybe try a belt dressing to see if its just the belt got wet during the hurricane?

Two best cars I've ever owned are my GP's, but darn it... I always get the obnoxious little problems. Knock on wood...

Besides the crank/balancer, EVERY pulley should spin easily once you take the belts off. Take off both belts, and go point to point and spin each one. Do a fast spin and see if it makes noise, then use your finger and spin it slowly and take note if there are any rough spots. If there is a rough spot it will likely need to be addressed at some point because the bearing are going.

This would be an opportune time to see if the coupler is going out as well. Grab the supercharger pulley and rock it back and forth, if there is play, you need to address that as well.

Save money, take an hours worth of time and check. If you can't figure out which one it is, you have bigger problems, or need to replace the belt.

Well, I took a good look again tonight after letting it sit in the cold weather. Started up and it was quite talkative, so I took a quick video. I'm pretty positive it is the tensioner pulley. See what you think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWPwMt_2Bt4

Sorry, I forgot to turn phone around so it shows horizontally... I'm a re-re.


The supercharger coupler is solid - no movement at all. I checked that when I did the belts the first time. There's a few maintenance things (such as cleaning my engine bay... i'm so embarrassed... one could normally lick my engine it was so clean) that I need to get done, but I'm right in the middle of buying a house, so everything is packed up until I move. If its the tensioner pulley, hopefully it can hold off for a week or two until I'm moved into the new house and can get car in a warm garage.

Look at your vid you see your belt jumping around? That is whats causing the squeak, change out the tensioner pulley.

That was an amazingly consistent clave beat. I'm just impressed.

No kidding... I thought the same thing about a clav! haha

Tensioner pulley it is. I'll change it out as soon as I get moved.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack. Sorry to revive a thread, but I'm about to go insane. Since my last post, I have (finally) moved into my house with a garage and changed idler pulley, tensioner pulley and eliminated alternator pulley from the mix. I have deduced it is the power steering pump pulley. I put a little water on it and the squeeking stopped immediately.

Honestly, i've never touched anything with power steering pumps unless filling/checking fluid. Can the pulley be changed separate from the pump? I see that its really not too bad to change the pump... remove belt, connector, pressure line and two bolts (if i'm right...). Is it better to just change both pulley and pump? Can I simply oil the bearing? Help!

The thought the power steering bully was pressed on

p/s pulley would have to have no groves in it or be sizing up and your steering would feel it it the pump was bad.

and yes the pulley is pressed on, the only way to remove it is to take the pump off the car, not to bad like you said. just watch for the knock sensor wire clipped to the back of it.

I don't think the pump is bad... I've just narrowed the incessant squeeling to that pulley. Gonna have to see if a place around here as a puller/press.

id take the belts off and clean all the pulleys first, warm soapy water and a nail scrub brush works well. then rinse it all off clean, then you can also clean the belt, same way, warm soapy water and a scrub brush, let the belts dry, then re install them.

over time oil and coolant and dirt can build up. and cause squeaks.

if you find the grooves are worn to nothing on the p/s pump, well then that maybe the problem, not sure if auto zone has the free rental deal for that puller, i bought one cost like 25 bucks or so.

when you ask for the puller, you need is a GM p/s pulley puller/installer. should it come to that.