I believe that I've dripped a little K&N oil on my A/C belt. It is squealing at me.. I oiled up my air filter before winter storage and discovered it leaky/over-oiled before starting it up a couple days ago. I cleaned up the K&N oil and put in a paper filter for now.

So, I could replace the belt, but do I need to clean the pulleys? How? With what?

or

Can I leave it as is for a few days and see if the oils burns/flings off? The noise is pretty much constant (sometimes goes away at idle).. and embarrassing..

Suggestions?

26k miles on the car. Belts look good and tight at first eye-ball, finger press inspection.

 

Belts are generally self-cleaning because of natural friction and heat. Residue on the belts and pulleys doesn't stay there for long.

I have had good luck in the past with a cleaning spray called belt-ease.

 

Spray it with brake clean while its running, it will take the grease right off.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The problem is intermittent at the moment; seems to be squeaking less. I am going to 'ride it out' to see if it corrects itself first.

 

Even though the belts looks good, the noise never went away. Even after some tightening the noise persisted. So, I just went ahead and replaced them. $35 I think.. for both belts. I'm just unsure of the deflection - without a gauge. Trying to make them feel as tight as they did before I replaced - maybe I'll try a local shop to see if they can measure deflection..

I am just surprised that it was the belts - they only have 27k miles on them (3 years though, 2 winter storage periods).

 

thekinn,
You said you replaced your two belts yourself? If so, was it hard? My ac and power steering belt are going bad, and I got quoted at $200 to have a shop replace them. When I had my Blazer, all you had to do was loosen the pulley, and you were good to go... Only problem with my '03 Z that I recently purchased, is there is a large engine, and small engine compartment. Oh, and the fact that I've never done it before, nor looked at them in much detail, is it the same?

Could you provide me with some instructions? Or know a site where I could get some information on how to replace the two belts?

 

It's very easy. About $35 for the two belts.. Here are the two pages from the 2006 service manual. There is also a DIY post in the DIY section of the forum for changing belts.

I did not use a belt tension gauge - I just went by feel. I wish I had a gauge but made it work without one. I also removed the engine cover for some extra space to work with, but you may be able to do this without that step.

 

^^ thanks ...will come in handy

 

awesome! thanks, that helps a lot!