Belt Squeal

**vgm** · 11-13-2009, 09:47 AM

Wasn't sure if this was the right place to put it but here goes. I have a 98 SS stock with about 106K, recently the main belt has started to squeal at low rpms. The belt is new I had purchased it this passed summer(the old one was cracked and started to squeal). Could it still be the belt? or could it be the upper belt tensioner? Or is there a good way to discern? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

**402 Guru** · 11-13-2009, 11:59 AM

1st the only way to tell if your tensioner is going out the best will move aS You see the belt moving .And 2nd the temp. fix to make the belt to stop squeeking ...

alought of belts for cars sit on the shelfs for awhile belt dressing sold at any major parts store spray some on the night before u drive then it will be absorbed by the belt and the sound either goes Away or its TIme to pay for a new belt.p.s sorry about the bad spelling typing late nights made me do it haha

**bigrondownhiller** · 11-13-2009, 01:41 PM

Replace the tensioner. It is probably original anyway. Hopefully that will fix it unless your belt gets messed up with the worn out tensioner.

**ryan_gilson** · 11-15-2009, 09:24 PM

I have had issus from time to time with putting on new belts and having them squeel for a little bit when they are new. Some times it will just go away. If this is the issue and not something else your can speed this up by taking a bar of plane soap and just doing the very edges of the belt whail the car is running. be cairfull and do not lose a finger! be sure not to get the soap on the inside of the belt just the egdes. It also should not take very much. If you end up putting alot on befor the sound goes away then you have another issue.

**Smittro** · 11-15-2009, 10:06 PM

Check your idler pulley. Very common place to start sqweeling from.

**BamBam87** · 11-15-2009, 11:08 PM

well what brand of belt did you buy? i was having the same problem and i asked on here what to do. i was told to get a goodyear gatorback belt and i actually just put the new belt on today and my squealing is gone......for good i hope. well let me know how that ends up going

**Blue28** · 11-16-2009, 02:18 PM

Good choice!

**Devildog1371** · 11-16-2009, 05:59 PM

A good way to find out if its a pulley or a belt is if you pour water on the belt and if it stops sqeaking then its most likey your belt. That same thing happened to me and I poured water on my AC belt and it stoped sqeaking so I replaced my AC belt and the sqeak stoped.

**Cutlass** · 11-16-2009, 06:35 PM

Recently, I've run into a couple of power steering pump pulleys that were slightly misaligned. One on an 2001 Tahoe and the other on my '94 Grand Cherokee. They are a pressed on pulley. I had to push the Tahoe pulley on a little further and pull the GC pulley out a little bit to stop the squeal.
On my GC, I used a screw driver to put a little tension on each side of the belt. When I pushed against the front side of the belt, the squeal went away.
I literally only moved the pulley like 1 millimeter to make the noise go away.

**402 Guru** · 11-16-2009, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Cutlass

Recently, I've run into a couple of power steering pump pulleys that were slightly misaligned. One on an 2001 Tahoe and the other on my '94 Grand Cherokee. They are a pressed on pulley. I had to push the Tahoe pulley on a little further and pull the GC pulley out a little bit to stop the squeal.
On my GC, I used a screw driver to put a little tension on each side of the belt. When I pushed against the front side of the belt, the squeal went away.
I literally only moved the pulley like 1 millimeter to make the noise go away.

+1 i had my goodyear gatorback belt on and it was squeeling like i ran over a pussy then i noticed my belt was stop squeeling when it had moretension on it i moved it like 1mm and bam problem gone

**RACSOZ28** · 04-11-2010, 09:51 AM

i just replaced the idler pulley but i over torqued the damn thing and i messed the bracket up im tryn to find the damn thing online but i cant. can anyone help??????????????????????????????????????/