before i loose my mind what can i do about my squeaky fanbelt????? ive put tons of belt dressing on it & it still squeaks! i had the water pump replaced & ever since then its sqeaks i really dont wanna have to go & buy a whole new belt but if that is my only option then i guess ill have too the belt doesnt have any cracks or anything in it....

please help before i loose my mind!!!!

 

well if its slipping that bad i'd take it off deglaze it with some sand paper.. clean that belt dressing crap off and put it back on with proper tension (1/4th inch of play per foot)

 

no its not slipping...its tight as it is surpose to be ,ive even had some guys here check it to make sure it was tight & it is

 

Then replace it.

 

replacing it was my last resort...so theres NOTHING else that will work?

 

Replace it or try the sanding trick to get rid of the shinyness on the belt.

 

Sand the belt pulleys too

 

Yup... rough everything up a little so it can grab good.

Maybe there is something touching the belt, and that makes the sqeaking?

 

Make sure your using a high quality belt. I had a cheap belt that would squeal like crazy. Replaced it with a Gates belt and no more noise.

 

i used the sanding trick on the fanbelt...it helped but there is still alittle bit of squeaking....i didnt rough the pulleys up though...someone said to try alittle bit of brake fliud on the belt to soften it up...but wont that only make it smoother?? also i thought the pulleys are surpose to be smooth?? why rough them up?

 

Don't use brake, or any other kind of fluid on your belt.

The pulleys are not supposed to be smooth, otherwise everyone's belts would squeal. It's like trying to do a burn out with flat tires. They'll grip a lot more than inflated ones.

 

ok nothing on fanbelt....just rough the belt up....ok well the pulleys are smooth,i tried sandpaper on them & all it done was put sctratch marks on the pulley...whenever you touch it,it is still smooth like the sandpaper didnt do nothing on it...what am i doing wrong??

 

Hard to say without seeing it....make sure you're using a rough sandpaper, and do all the pulleys instead of just the alternator. If it still squeals it may be time for a new belt as Justin said.

 

ok the sandpaper im using is 100 aluminum oxide by 3m 336u....is this right or not?

 

It's good enough

 

lol glad to know thatll due...wouldnt wanna mess it up more .....thanks for your help

 

Electric fan motor maybe? I thought my serpentine belt was squeaking, but the squeak kept going with the engine off for a little bit.

 

well i dont believe its that though-thanks for the suggestion!!....the reason i dont think its that is because whenever i sprayed the wd-40,belt dressing,engine cleaner gunk, & all those other suggestions to the belt & to the back of the pulley (down near the water pump) it shut up for a few mins....all this never started until i had the water pump replaced.....so i turned to you guys for advice..i dont want to have to replace the belt cuz it is in awesome shape....

 

well guys the roughing up the belt thing didnt help..it did for alittle bit but now its back to normal so im going probably over the weekend to get a new fanbelt....whats a brand name or whatever that you all suggest?? what names are you all using??

 

forget everything ive said so far...i just thought about something .....i dont understand something...

someone told me to spray wd-40 behind the pulley down by the water pump..i did that..it stopped for a few mins...& started squealing again....

ok what i dont understand is when i sprayed wd-40,belt dressing,etc directly on the fanbelt it also quite for a few mins...

so what exactly is making it squeal? is it the fanbelt or is it the pulley down by the water pump??

sorry guys i know you all will be glad whenever i get this problem straightened out,i know i will be-lol

 

the reason that its squeeling is because it IS SLIPPING.

that squeeling noise is only caused by the belt slipping. It may be as tight as it needs to be, but that hardly means that it isnt slipping.

A lazy trick is to put grease or wd-40 on it, which simply lubricates the belt while it slips so it wont make a noise; it actually is still slipping.

I always have people asking me at work to put grease or belt dressing or salad dressing or whatever on their belts to quiet them. That may make them quite for a little while, but it IS going to start up again. The only real fix is to just get a new belt.

Go on, do it.

It's ok.

Good belt is only 11 bucks.

Are you still reading this?

Ok you need more motivation. Over time rubber decays, and it becomes hard and brittle; so it slips more as it dosnt have the "grab" that it should. Take a look at an old pair of tires, they'll get a reddish hue to them and have cracks. Same thing happens to belts. Go buy a new quality belt, and hold it in your right hand. Hold the old one in your left hand, feel both belts. You'll notice an amazing difference in how they feel. The old one will be hard and smooth, the new one will be softer, almost sticky and rough.

I got an 84 lesabre a few months ago, and i'm fairly sure it still had the original belts on it. There was grease all over the underside of the hood from a genious mechanic putting grease on the belts. They were as tight as they should of been but they still squeeled like crazy. I went out and got some goodyear gatorback belts, put them on and tightend them up right and BAM.

Noise was gone, imagine that....

 

So are you saying that you sprayed wd-40 on the water pump pulley and the squeal stopped?

I bet you have spent more on belt dressing and wd-40 than a new belt would have cost. Btw all that petoleum based goo will ruin a new belt and now your belt is likely impergnated with wd40 and such. So get you new belt take the old one off clean all that goo off the pulleys with some brake cleaner and scotchbrite and put on your new $10 belt.
If the squeal doesn't stop then it isn't the belt and likely a pulley bearring. Like the one you changed ie... water pump.
New part does not always mean good part.

 

yes thats what im saying....owell i just went to autozone & got a new belt..give you all an update later

 

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!! lmao....thanks,shouldve listened to ya'll soon

finally got it put on today & WOW what a difference!!! thanks!