Very loud belt squeal, pulley problem or belt?

suprarx7nut

suprarx7nut

YotaMD.com author
Nov 10, 2006
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Arizona
www.supramania.com
So on my NA I have a nasty squeal that developed on my drive home from work last night. It is most definitely drive belt related, most likely the AC belt. I couldn't tell exactly where the noise was coming from, but it smelled like burning belt(rubber). So I turned the car off and felt the belts and the A/C belt was VERY hot compared to the other belts. I have had this dry metal on metal sort of sound lately, which was getting worse on my drive to work. Could that be the idler pulley?

The belt is tight, just like all the others. The belt looks perfectly fine, no cracks or missing chunks at all. Why would it be squealing like a stuck pig?

Do the idler pulleys ever go bad and squeal like crazy?
Can a belt simply go bad and lose grip while looking just fine?

I will be pulling the Ac belt off to verify that is the problem, but I'm fairly certain right now.

Thanks for any help! :)

-Andy
 
Big Wang Bandit

Big Wang Bandit

You Can't Quit Me Baby
Feb 21, 2006
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San Ramon, CA - 925!
what do the belts look like?

Remove and inspect it, because belts can wear in silly ways. I had a coustomer come in with a camry belt that wore an angle against the the edge of the pully, and was making tons of noise, he couldn't figure it out until removing it.

Is it brittle? hard? SUPER soft?
 
suprarx7nut

suprarx7nut

YotaMD.com author
Nov 10, 2006
3,811
1
38
Arizona
www.supramania.com
I'll remove it tonight, but on the car it felt normal. Not noticeably hard or soft. :dunno:

While on the car, the belt looks just fine. I can try to post some pics of it when I pull it tonight.
 
dumbo

dumbo

Supramania Contributor
Jul 16, 2008
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Albera, Too Far North
sounds like one of the pulleys seize or is gonna seize, that would cause the smell and sound, and if the belt is hot to touch. and the metal on metal....

maybe fire it up and see if all the pulleys are moving, then when you take off the belt see if they all spin by hand nice and easy.
 
jo7mge

jo7mge

ENIGMA
Jul 19, 2007
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Anaheim
in my NA it always squeals when i hit 4k rpm's lol once i had this camaro owner think it was spooling ROLMFAO
 
suprarx7nut

suprarx7nut

YotaMD.com author
Nov 10, 2006
3,811
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38
Arizona
www.supramania.com
Well I started the car tonight after 12 hours at school.... ugh.

Anywho, the squeal started right away. I stopped the car after maybe 15 seconds and felt the belt and pulley. The pulley was extremely hot. So I'll be getting a new one tomorrow. For now the belt is removed and my engine is quieter than it has ever been!

The pulley must have been bad for quite some time now.
 
A

A-model_

New Member
Jun 7, 2006
84
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TX
Check your harmonic balancer for play. I wish I had checked mine before it flew off :(. Tore up the fan and shroud, now it squeals everytime I start the car.
 
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