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Pulley bearings going bad?

Old Dec 6, 2012 | 06:11 PM
  #1  
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footballmania32
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Angry Pulley bearings going bad?

Sup fellas,

Posted this up in the oh so active tech area on G35driver, and I'm not receiving much feedback. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Searching on both forums yielded no helpful threads. Thank you!

Originally Posted by Footballmania32
Hey guys,

Over the past few weeks I've had a chirping/high pitched soft squeak developing on cold starts. It is not squealing like a belt in need of tensioning. *It originated from what looks to be the idler pulley/alternator pulley area. Took a real good listen around and I think I have it fairly isolated. I took a video to help better covey the noise to you guys. *Im doing a major maintenance in two weeks, so I wanted to go ahead and order any parts I may need now. Take a listen. Any trouble shooting will help greatly!

Additional info, belts were changed at Infiniti 6 months ago (EDIT: actually a year ago.) Noise goes away after 20 minutes of driving roughly 55mph. I.e. the noise will often stick around 10-15 minutes after it has been at operating temp. Other times, I have to really get on it doing a customary WOT 1st-2nd high rpm pull for it to go away, and this is after the initial 20 minutes of driving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blWaGq66cHg

TIA. :biggthumpup:

Last edited by footballmania32; Dec 6, 2012 at 06:12 PM.
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Old Dec 6, 2012 | 06:40 PM
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Have you checked to make sure they tightened down the nuts on the tensioner screws? It'd be better if you had a stethoscope to exactly pin point it, but you can also take the belt off and spin each pulley by hand and hopefully feel for the bad one.
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Old Dec 6, 2012 | 08:25 PM
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Is it the idler or tensioner pulley. Both are simple , idler is cheap, just remove it and buy a smaller belt.
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Old Dec 7, 2012 | 12:54 AM
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Great idea on removing the belt and checking each pulley. And I do plan on removing the dead IP when I fix this problem. While I'm up in there, might as well lose 3 lbs!

However, if they failed to tighten the tensioner bolts, would that make a rotational noise similar to mine? Wouldn't that make the belt more likely to squeal? I've heard belt related noises before and I could be wrong but this sounds like something else. Often times, on a cold start the noise doesn't start until 15-20 seconds after the car has been on.

Last edited by footballmania32; Dec 7, 2012 at 12:57 AM.
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Old Dec 7, 2012 | 07:11 AM
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Take a mechanics stethoscope and while the card is running place the stethoscope on the nut of each pulley. You will instantly find where the noise is generated. Chances are a bearing is either dry or worn out.

Don't take the belt off because rotating them by hand will not produce the same noise. With a stethoscope it is easy to find while the engine is running. I've done it thousands of times on vehicles.
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Old Dec 7, 2012 | 09:53 AM
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Sounds good. I'll go buy one today and pin point the noise. If it does turn out to be a bearing, how would I go about replacing it?
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