would water and dexcool antifreeze cause this crap if it got on the belts?
YES it would cause squealing. My water pump took a crap on me during a trip and the car was flat bedded 50 miles to the nearest dealer. Anti freeze all over the front of the engine. They had to put on a new S belt to stop the squeal. They weren't hosing me because my new S belt happened to be the one in the trunk I just happened to have.
Before replacing the belt I would hose the pullies with some brake and parts cleaner to clean them off and not contaminate the new belt. Cover the fenders so the cleaner isn't slung on them while cleaning.
I see. That would explain a good bit, since several friends have also made the conclusion it could be the under drive belt. The tensioner is located just below the ACC belt tensioner, isn't it? I'll be putting a new ACC tensioner on as well, just to be safe. I can replace the S belt and clean everything while I'm at that. I would hope a general degreaser should work out, since I've got plenty of that from cleaning my floors at my old place. On a side note, after I finally fix this, I'd like to make a separate thread with the issue and the fix, since I've seen alot of old threads like this that never had resolution. That way, people can reference a sticky instead of having to try all this and keep checking back for answers, haha
How about we Isolate the concern. While is running. spray wd-40 on both ends of the belt away from other pulleys. If that doesnt quiet it down, shut the car off. Inspect the power steering pulley. the pulley and the snout of the pump should be flush. If that looks okay, start the car and turn on the AC. Listen for a tone change or an absence of squeak. Spray the AC belt with WD-40... keep us posted.
Don't waste your time with cleaning products or lubricants around the belts or rotating components which all have sealed bearings.
The way I determined which belt drive system was making noise on my GTO..
1) Remove both belts. Fire the engine up briefly to confirm the sound is gone and had come from either belt drive system.
2) Reinstall the aux belt, leaving the ac belt off and fire the engine up. Squeal goes away, its in the AC drive.
3) If the squeal is still there, remove the aux drive belt and reinstall only the AC belt. Fire up the engine to confirm its gone or coming from both belt drive systems.
4) Which ever one or both, that you find making the squealing sound, replace the belt, tensioner and idler pulley.
After 3 years of quiet operation, 2 years ago mine started to squeal each year after the summer heat subsided and fall temps set in. Figuring the belt expanded beyond the ability of the tensioner to maintain proper tension, i replaced the belt each year and the squeal went away. But after only putting about 6000 miles on new belts twice and they started to squeal again, I want a cure that last longer.
Following the above I found the sound was coming from my AC belt drive and opted to replace both belts, tensioners and idler pulleys... No its not a cheap fix and I hope to find this approach has worked next fall because I believe its the best way to cure the problem.
I carefully applied belt conditioner to both belts, but nothing changed. On an unrelated note, I've noticed a slight kick in the steering wheel at 20-30mph. My guess is a flat spotted tire from sitting in one spot too long. Oh well, front tires are due for replacement anyways and I was going to get the alignment checked regardless.
Don't waste your time with cleaning products or lubricants around the belts or rotating components which all have sealed bearings.
The way I determined which belt drive system was making noise on my GTO..
1) Remove both belts. Fire the engine up briefly to confirm the sound is gone and had come from either belt drive system.
2) Reinstall the aux belt, leaving the ac belt off and fire the engine up. Squeal goes away, its in the AC drive.
3) If the squeal is still there, remove the aux drive belt and reinstall only the AC belt. Fire up the engine to confirm its gone or coming from both belt drive systems.
4) Which ever one or both, that you find making the squealing sound, replace the belt, tensioner and idler pulley.
After 3 years of quiet operation, 2 years ago mine started to squeal each year after the summer heat subsided and fall temps set in. Figuring the belt expanded beyond the ability of the tensioner to maintain proper tension, i replaced the belt each year and the squeal went away. But after only putting about 6000 miles on new belts twice and they started to squeal again, I want a cure that last longer.
Following the above I found the sound was coming from my AC belt drive and opted to replace both belts, tensioners and idler pulleys... No its not a cheap fix and I hope to find this approach has worked next fall because I believe its the best way to cure the problem.
Thanks for all this! I'll give this a shot and see what happens. I'm willing to bet the ACC belt tension might have gone. I still need to try that new pulley, but when alininin gets here to Hawaii, I'm just gonna replace the whole tensioner anyways.
We have had roughly 135 LSX powered cars and the AC belt or AC tensionor is the cause of the squeeling 95% of the time. When you change the belts go with Goodyear Gatorbacks...the cheaper ones are junk and will squeal worse.
Well, I've dug out my tool set from my closet as well as my tensioner pulley, so when the sun rises I'm gonna go ahead and change it out. Is there any trick to getting the bolt out of th e pulley or does it just come out like any other bolt?
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