For a while now, my serpentine belt has been making a repetitive chirping sound without any desire to stop. I have a valucraft belt that is less than a year old, air conditioning and power steering on a 3.0 V6 Vulcan in a 1999 Ranger. The belt tensioner, tensioner pulley, and idler pulley have all been replaced under a year ago.

If I just spray plain water on the belt, squeak goes away. Of course it comes right back, and never leaves.

I'm seriously considering purchasing this belt right here. I cannot stand belt squeals.

1999 FORD RANGER Continental Elite Poly-V Belts 4060882 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing

 

Did you deglaze the pulleys when you changed the belt?

 

No, I didn't. How would one go about doing so? Degreaser and a wire brush?

 

The chirp you are hearing may be something other than the belt making noise.
However it is a good idea to clean the pulleys.

I would use a small stainless steel brush and soap and water then rinse well and dry them off with compressed air.

Before you clean anything remove the belt and listen to each pulley while spinning them in the normal direction they rotate, use a mechanics stethoscope or a long screw driver to listen for bearing noises.

 

I'll give that a try and report back. Thanks.

 

Took the belt off and looked it over under a bright light. In the grooves there were some shiny areas. No pulley in particular made any noise, except for the water pump which made some noise, but not while running so I didn't pay any mind to it. Other than that, normal pulley noise.

Sprayed some soapy water (blue dawn specifically) and gave the pulleys and belt a light wire brushing, a thinner wire brush used on the belt than on the pulleys. Put it back on, went for a drive and it is much quieter now. You can still hear it a little bit but not much.

 

My chirping came from a bad power steering pump bearing.

I was worried it was the cam synch and they chirp as well.
I took the belt of and ran the engine to check that.

Turned all pulleys by hand and noticed power steering locking up.
Bad bearings cause chirping as well as loose belts.

I've never had good luck with value craft stuff either. Especially belts

 

The chirping in my engine were worn idler bearings, but one of the new idlers bearings was so stiff that the belt was making noise slipping on the back of the idler.

I don't think the bearings in these after market products are of great quality, I went and got a new bearing (by itself) and pressed it, then the noise stopped.

 

Sorry to post on an old thread bu tthis caught my eye.

I learned when working on Chryslers (shudder) that belts out of alignment cause chirps. I ended up moving I think an alternator that sat back a little in the saddle not exactly in line with the other pulleys.

A couple of washers to move it forward cleared it up.

Just a thought.

 

For my specific application, I find dawn with water, a thin wire brush and an air compressor shuts it up when contamination is an issue. Works well.

 

if you have cleaned the belt and pullies, all is good there except maybe the belt tentioner but i dought it, sounds like bearings are starting to seize up,aka water pump, alternator, power steering? most likely water pump, i could do one now in about an hour and change!

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5...Y3SWFnTlZqcE1v

mine are dirty and never squeel

 

I'm running a valucraft belt, and these apparently react to tiny amounts of dirt and whatnot. I haven't heard it make any noise since cleaning, so three months and counting.

 

Gates or Goodyear GatorBack Belts are the only 2 that i ever use. Never a issue with noise!

Wayne

 

What size/type is the serpentine belt tensioner mounting bolt? Looks like a torx head from where I'm looking.

 

If you can wait until the end of the day I can tell you, I have my engine all apart.
It's not torx though, at least mine isn't.
With out checking I think it's an 8mm socket size.

 

t 50 if i remember right, the bed bolts are t 55

 

I need to add to this because it's over looked.
my problem was not the power steering pump. I must have changed it out six times until I figured out some techniques that show me exactly what it was.

Typically when bearings are bad and you spray water on the belt. The belt will squeal worse. If you spray water on the belt and the sound stops it means the belt is out of alignment.

The bearings were fine in the water pump and we're fine on the idler pulley's and tensioner as well. Upon inspection of the pulleys surface. I found it to be worn at a slight angle. This was throwing them out of alignment and making them chirp and squeal. I replaced the idler but not the tensioner so it's mostly gone. But the tensioner pulley is bad as well and causing a slight misalignment. So it's still there a little. It is not the bearings. It is the surface of the Pulley itself.

 

lol i wounder if its like cooking with deglazing a pan? dump a bottle of wine on the pulleys and belt? keep the lil people happy? rotff

 

I'll toss this out there, just because. I'm now using that belt I mentioned in my first post.

Now, the thing squeaks like mad when it's cold and will not stop until it's hot. when it's hot, it stops.

Before I installed the belt, I soaked the pullies with brake clean and let it dry for a short time before installing. It squeaked briefly but quickly stopped. It remained so for quite some time, and now I have this problem.

Oh, and as a warning, belt dressing SUCKS!!!!! It makes an absolute MESS of everything! Only brake clean will dissolve it, too. Yuck! Hence the brake clean on the pullies to begin with before installing.

I can't isolate it to any one space, as it's coming from the entire front of the engine it appears. I know darn well it's the belt, I know that sound all too well. If I take the belt off and start it cold, it's quiet as a church mouse.

Also, the dawn and wire brush thing isn't working for me anymore unfortunately. So far I'm waiting to see if it'll wear in over time and stop doing that. I hate belt squeals.....

 

I figured out the issue!!!! My belt tensioner is over tightening the belt! No wonder! If I loosen it by hand, engine running, it shuts up immediately. Shoulda gone with motorcraft...

 

I recently found when looking at all the pulleys close up that they wear a pattern.

If you take it off and look at the side profile you will see it's not flat anymore like it should be. It will be slightly tapered. This taper causes the belt to sit lop sided and throws the belt off angle so it's not sitting flat anymore.

The chirp is caused by misalignment.
If you put some wd40 or water on it and the belt noise gets worse.....it's a worn bearing.
If you put wd40 on it or water and the chirp goes away.....it's misaligned. Changing out the pulleys themselves is the cure for this.

Sometimes it's the tensioner. However.....when the tensioner is replaced. The pulley is replaced as well. The problem goes away and you think the tensioner is at fault. When it is actually only the pulleys

New fancy Gatorback or whatever belts are a bandaid. You should be able to put the cheapest junk belt on there and it works fine as long as the parts are I good working order.

De glazing......maybe. Couldn't hurt but it's usually not the cause.

Tensioner.......it should bounce when the engine is reved. It's it's stuck then it could be over tightening. So let's say it is over tightening. It will stretch the belt over time and make it loose. This could also cause it to slip.

But again......tensionersvare often replaced because the pulley surface area is not flat anymore.