Thread: serpentine belt resolution

took truck in to simi valley ford and wasnt pleased with the tech there! truck was there about a week or so ago for some belt noises and some rattling. they fixed it with a new alternator and serpentine belt, i was also about 600 miles passed the warranty stuff.

needless to say, i wont be taking it there to get work done and will be doing it on my own or it will be going to sunrise ford!

i would like to resolve this issue on my own, because i love my truck...this is whats going on, its been a week and i havent even put 500 miles on it and the belt is being fraid AGAIN and the belt noise came back. any help would be GREATLY appreciated

thanks in advance
robert

I would first check that the belt is tight enough. The tensioner pulley spring might be weak.

I would then take the belt off and make sure all the pulleys and accessories spin freely. It might be the idler pulley bearings going bad. These have been known to seize up and fry the belt.

It might be as simple as it wasn't installed properly to the pulley is warped or damaged.

Originally Posted by JetskiMark

I would first check that the belt is tight enough. The tensioner pulley spring might be weak.

I would then take the belt off and make sure all the pulleys and accessories spin freely. It might be the idler pulley bearings going bad. These have been known to seize up and fry the belt.

Originally Posted by orng1

It might be as simple as it wasn't installed properly to the pulley is warped or damaged.

The belt seems tight and there is no slop or slack when on... I did notice a slight wobble off of the pulley on the upper alternator and also the pulley off the crank but the noise comes from the alternator pulley.

The alternator was replaced and so was the belt... From what the paper says!

If there is a wobble on the pulley that is where you are damaging your belt. It should be solid. It's easy to damage the pulleys when you swap them over, I know I've done it . :(

I'm hoping it's the tensioner and that the belt is giving the illusion of a wobbly crank pully? The tensioner jumps around quite a bit, but the bracket holding the tensioner seems to be solid.
They replaced the alternator not just the pully. My truck has nearly 40000 and this just happend within the last couple hundred miles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHSYh...eature=channel

here is the video and sound of the chirping that i am getting. the crank pully is fine it was just my eyes were playing tricks on me.
sorry for the clarity. i am thinking more that it is the tensioner like you guys have said

bump...

idk if these trucks have an idler somewhere that could go bad but my guess is bad bearing in tensioner

they have to idlers from a diagram that was showed to me but i do think its a bad tensioner

edit-2 idlers

I used to have a beater that had a squeaky idler pulley. I would spray WD40 in the bearings and it would be quiet for a couple of weeks. I also did this on an alternator, a tensioner and an AC compressor clutch before.

(I have had many beaters over the years. Crappy cars are fun to abuse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qutNXR8lvSA)

This is definitely not a fix, but on a cheap vehicle that I did not want to put money into, it worked.

My point is this; I would try it as a diagnostic procedure. With the engine off, spray both sides of the idler pulley bearings. Try not to get any on the belt. Start it and see if the problem was that pulley. If not, do one component at a time until you find the problem.

that is the diagram shown to me. icant say its a recall because it doesnt get that cold out here and there is no chirp when starting the truck. it happens within 10 to 20 seconds of starting the truck.
the more i think about it, the more i am thinking its a bad idler pulley?

Try pulling the belt and physically turning the idlers and tensioner by hand.

Took the truck into the dealer, which I didn't wanna do, told them that nothing was fixed the first time and that he left the plug that runs to the fan, off.
I can say this much, I am NOT paying for a new alternator and belt or his time... That was done the first time

little update...
apparently the nut keeps coming loose on the truck and they dont know why. they are waiting for word from ford out in detroit, to know what the cause is and how to fix it?