I have a 2005 Enthusiast 350z with the manual 6spd.

About 6 months ago I started having intermittent belt squealing problems and it has since gotten worse and worse.

If I let the car sit for as little as 2 hours or more the belt is guaranteed to squeel like a stuck pig for anywhere from 5 seconds up to 45 seconds. It's never the same length of time, but it always squeels.

When I free-rev the engine the engine will squeel also.

I've tried 3 different belt sets and none have fixed the problem.
1. OEM Nissan belts
2. Gates Racing belts
3. Goodyear Gatorback belts

After every fresh belt install the belt wouldn't squeel until 2 days of driving and it would come back. Of course this means that the belt is stretching out a little. It sounds like the noise is coming from the front passenger side of the car.

Aside from the belts replacement, I have also replaced the alternator and belt tensioner pulley for the alternator accessory drive belt. None of these replacements solved the problem.

The part that makes this weird is that the belt doesn't feel like it's all that tight, but I've managed to get the tensioner all the way up on its travel with the adjustment mechanism. It seems like it should be extremely tight but it isn't. I did not do this at first, but I had tightened it up all the way to see if it would make the squeel go away.

Also I can guarantee you that the belt routing is correct.

I think this weekend I'm going to pull the belt off and see what the other accessory pulleys feel like to see if something is binding, but I don't think it is.

Any creative ideas before it goes into the shop to get looked at?

 

Just to be clear about the alternator - I hadn't touched anything in the engine compartment when the squeal started happening. Because it started making the noise I put in a new alternator.

Since then the tensioner pulley assembly, idler pulley assembly and belts have been changed.

When I remove the belt from the engine the sound does not happen at all.

The only thing left to replace is the power steering pump.

Any other suggestions I might try to fix this issue?

 

bump...?

 

I have the exact same problem man. I just bought a new alternator and the sound is still there. I have the UR pulleys and i dont think that is the problem. Im going to check on the tensioner pulley see if that is the problem.

 

Having the same issue, wondering if either if you found the cause.

Thanks.

 

Have you checked the fluid in the PS pump? I bet the pump is on its way out, or low on fluid. Do you ever get notchy or stiff steering? If it's gonna happen, it'd be when the car's cold. Early morning or late night, when the car's sat for 5+ hours, is when you'd notice it.

 

I had this problem on my RevUp VQ, OEM built for 2012. Same noise and changed many belts. At this time I was squeezing every pony out of this not motor while still naturally aspirated, stock internals. Daily driven so hard I had to rotate tires 2-3 times between oil changes.

I started looking closely at belt alignment after it shredded the second helicog style Continental Elite Belts (AKA Goodyear Gatorback). I found a sight misalignment at the tensioner pulley. I removed the tensioner assembly, removed the pulley, pressed out the pulley bearing. Pressed in a new National 203FF bearing in at an offset from OEM spacing in order to compensate and create a more even alignment. Reinstalled/reassembled and tested.

I never had another problem. Never needed another belt after installing the last Gatorback. (Note, this is the only modification I've made to the pulleys on the engine. All components touching the serpentine belt are still original with the exception of the belt tensioner bearing and spacing related to the bearing).

VQ's love to be tormented with high R's when they're running right.

IMO...

It's the best love/hate relationship money can buy!

 

8 years since last post

 

I think you come here just to do things like this 🤣

 

i just with people would read the last post date