Hey all,

i got stuck in the mud a while back, and i had a small whine/grinding noise coming from under the hood afterwards. It wasnt too big of a deal at all, but someone told me to put some belt dressing on the serpentine belt, and it should quiet it down.

so i did so, and immediately had a god awful squeal/and a high pitched whining at acceleration, almost sounded like a vacuum.

I took the belt off, cleaned it, and the pulleys, and no success. anyone know what happened, and how i can fix it. any ideas would be helpful

 

Might try just replacing the belt all together and while its off check the tensioner and all the idler pulleys, those bearings are known for going bad.

 

yeah sounds like you got mud/water in a tensioner/idler pulley

 

Don't use that crap, Ive used it before and it did the same thing, made the belt sequel worse than before.
Here's an old school trick thou, use bar soap, I've tried that with better success over the belt dressing.

 

you really shouldn't use belt dressing on a fan belt... it just collects dirt and crap and wears out the belt faster.

Just replace the belt.

You might have gotten the dressing in the bearings/bushings of your pulleys... thats probably what is causing all the noise. If that collects dirt now it will wear those out too.


... as for the suggestion of using soap... DO NOT DO THAT. Its the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. The reason the belt is squeaking is that it is slipping. You do NOT want your belt to slip... putting soap on the belt just makes it slip more quietly. And it probably increases the slipping.

... again... just replace your fanbelt.

 

Replace your belt with a Goodyear Gator Back belt. Never had any squealing from it. Not even on the shifts in high RPM's.

Check your Idler pulley and tensioner pulley too. Bearing are know to go in these.

 

turn the pulleys by hand and see what's making the noise.

 

Belt dressing was designed to be used on the old style 'V' belts..not the serpentine belts

 

Redneck cure for belt squealing -like a stuck pig. Go in your back yard and scrape off a dab of pine sap off a pine. wipe the sap on the belt-problem solved with no money spent.

 

toothpaste works pretty good. Or you can do what I did, seeing as the belt was squealing i decided to buy one an inch too small. Had to buy underdrive pulleys to make that fit.

When you change your belt check your pulleys and use some sand paper and a wire brush on them to remove all the crap that you just packed into all those tiny grooves. Like the other guys said that belt dressings mixes with the dirt and makes a pretty nasty substance. Dont put your new belt on there without cleaning the pulleys.

I helped a guy troubleshoot his electrical system once because he had went through 3 alternators and kragen wasnt going to warranty them anymore. Troubleshot the electrical problem all the way back to the original glazed pulley they kept reusing.