I changed the crank pulley about 1000 miles ago and just noticed that I have squeaking at idle that I'm sure wasn't there before.

When I retensioned the belts after putting on the pulley I didn't have tension gauge so I just tightened the screws the same amount as I loosened them.

How carefully do the belts need to be adjusted? Should I get a tension gauge? Does it matter which one?

I'm assuming that the tension is the problem but could it be something else? Only about 3K mile on the car.

Isn't there something I could spray on the belts?

Tx

 

i also had to re-adjust the belt tension to stop the squealing one month after installing the lightweight cank pulley. The squealing happened just in the morning when i first started the engine and it would stop after a few seconds. The squealing was caused by loose belt tension. It hasn't squeal once after the re-adjustment. The trick is too tighten the belts just enough to stop the squealing.

 

Sounds good, thanks

 

I've heard bad things about the spray on solutions.. something about drying out the belts and causing them to break. Sqealing is indicitave of a deeper problem anyway; not enough tension, or a pully alignment problem that causes the belt to stretch, or just a worn-out belt (but not after only 3k miles).

If the squealing returns after tightening, it could be the belt has already been damaged and needs replacement, but could also indicate a problem with your pullies.

Anyway, stay away from the spray stuff...

 

OT: I would like to have a few words with the *&%*&% that decided to put the belt adjustments under the car. Not that just being under the car is bad enough, you have to remove the plastic pan under the engine.

 

I hear that!

 

yeah it's a PITA. These belts need to be tightened pretty good, least on my car cause otherwise the bastards squeek. After taking my car to the dealer it came back squeeking. I think they loosened the main belt because I noticed the belt seemed a lot looser than what I tightened it too originally. But I had to get it decently good on there otherwise it would squeek on startup. Now I got to go back, take off the damn cover, and retighten and play w/ a fan to cool the belts and keep trying until the belt that's squeeking is finally fixed. ...ugh...