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Car Belt Questions and Answers
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Question: 2001 Chrysler Town & Country mileage:
85,000. I have a great auto mechanic that
I've used for 20 years and I trust him
completely. However, I seem to have a
problem that he cannot fix. My serpentine
belt has been replaced about four times over
the past six months (the tensioner has been
replaced at least twice) and keeps breaking.
It's not a matter of money... my mechanic is
standing by his repair work and does not
charge me... but the belt issue is very
annoying. It seems any new belt we put on
starts squealing after about three weeks on
the car, and then about two weeks later it
comes off and leaves me stranded. Any help
you can provide here will be greatly
appreciated.
Answer:
Yes, we have seen this problem before in the
shop, check your engine mounts. You will
find that they have broken. This allows the
engine to torque to the side and brake the
tensioner.
Question: 1998 Breeze
Acclaim V6 mileage: 100,000.
Hi guys, I have a quick question regarding
the alt. belt in my 1993 Plymouth Acclaim.
Last year during the winter the alt.
serpentine belt fell off while backing out
of some deep snow. I put the belt back on.
This summer the belt started squealing so I
replaced it. Now the belt has fallen off
three times already when driving through
rain puddles. What can I do to prevent the
belt from falling off when driving through
puddles (the puddles are not that
big...everyone else can go through them)?
Answer: Check the belt
tensioner, try to wobble it side to side if
you get excessive movement the part is bad
and needs replacing.
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Question: 1999
Ford Ranger Supercab mileage: 83,000.
About 2 weeks ago I noticed a rather
annoying belt squeak. The sound came only
after initially cranking over the engine,
turning on the A/C, and turning the corner
or steering one way or the other. The
noise is quite an attention getter and
usually provokes a chuckle of superiority
from pedestrians and motorists. To
take it a step further my beloved truck
stalled at a stoplight today. It was
very hot today 95+ degrees and again, the
shrieking wild animal noises come when the
A/C is on. HELP.
Answer:
A fan belt starts to squeak because it is
slipping on the pulleys. This in turn causes
the belt to glaze over. We would
advise replacing the belt and the belt
tensioner in this situation.
Question: 1999
Isuzu Rodeo V6 mileage: 60,000. My fan
belt broke. I purchased a new one.
It’s the exact same size as the old one.
My problem is I can't get it on. I've
tried to loosen the alternator the
compressor and the power steering pump and
still no luck. There is, what it looks
like is an adjustable wheel just left of the
compressor, but I’m not sure. Can you
please help me solve my problem?
Answer: It sounds as if
the adjustable wheel you mentioned is the
spring loaded tensioner for the belt.
With a pry bar, pry the tensioner to
facilitate installing the new belt.
Question: 2004
Toyota Camry 4 cyl mileage: 42,700. I
don't want my belts and hoses to break while
driving. I'd like to have them
replaced early to help avoid this happening.
At what mileage do you suggest an early
replacement?Answer: Under normal
circumstances you should replace your drive
belts every two years or 25,000 miles which
ever occurs first.
Question:
1999 Mazda mx3 mileage: 104,000. My
car makes this loud squealing noise when I
start it and then it stops. I was told it
was my air conditioner belt, but I had it
looked at and it wasn't worn so they put
some belt dressing on it and it stopped, for
awhile. Now it's squealing even worst
even when I'm just stopping at a red light.
What should I do?Answer: You will probably
have to replace the air-conditioner belt.
Once a belt starts to squeal the sides of
the belt glaze over and no adjusting or
treatment will permanently stop the
squealing.
Question:
1999 Buick/regal 3.1 mileage: 65,000.
I am getting ready to replace the serpentine
belt and need to know if replacing the
automatic tensioner is advised. The belt is
not that bad, but i thought it was about
time. Thank you!Answer:
Yes, it is a good idea to replace the belt
tensioner when you replace the belt.
Over time, the spring inside gets weak and
looses tension.
Question:
1998 Mitsubishi Galant mileage:
109,500. It has recently started making a
squealing noise when I start it up. It
has gotten even worse through this cold
spell that we had recently; but after the
car warms up the noise stops. I've been
told that it is just the fan belts, which
sounds right, but I still don't know what to
do. My question is: Is there anything
that I can do or do I need to invest in new
belts?
Answer:
You can find out if it is the belts by doing
an easy test. With the engine cold, remove
the belts and start the engine. If you
don’t here the squealing that you described,
then you will know that it is your fan belts
making the noise. Do not run the
engine any longer than 1 minute without the
fan belts.
Question:
1999 FORD XLT Truck mileage: 117,000. When I start my engine, cold only, I hear a
squealing noise, like the serpentine belt.
The noise goes away after the engine warms
up a little. About a year ago, I
replaced the belt with a FORD factory belt.
Help?
Answer:
Replace the spring loaded belt tensioner.
Question:
1999 Toyota Tercel mileage: 102,000. I
just rebuilt this motor due to bad rings
from the Toyota Company, now it runs fine
but keeps breaking a water pump and
alternator belt. I replaced the water
pump and had the alternator checked and
rebuilt due to it had no output voltage.
I replaced and fixed all of this but I still
have the same problem. When I start
the car up it sounds and runs smooth but
after a few minutes, it starts to squeal.
Before when I would check the belts I
noticed a plastic dust in the area of the
water pump and Alternator. Could
you give me any solutions to fix this
problem? Thank youAnswer: Check the alignment of the pulleys the belts
ride on. If the pulleys are
misaligned, belt failure will occur.
Question:
1999 Chevy k 2500 truck mileage: 39,927.
MY question is this, my belt won’t stop
squealing I’ve tried the sprays and the
jellies, even tried rubbing a bar of soap on
the belt while the engine was running. None
of this worked for very long, actually all
of this broke down the belt to where, I had
too replace the belt. All the pulley's
and tensioners are straight and inline.Answer: Try cleaning the
pulleys. With a new good quality belt,
clean pulleys and proper belt tensioner, it
should be quiet.
Question:
1995 Plymouth Voyager 3.0 v-6. Can you
tell me the proper alignment for the V-drive
belt on this car and motor? I cannot
find the proper information. The belt
broke and am ready to put back together and
I have check different books and can not
come up with the proper info on this if have
a picture to send would help. ThanksAnswer:
We wish we could help you here.
However, it is almost impossible to describe
how the belts should be installed. We
suggest you find another Plymouth and check
it for belt placement. If you see one
for sale, maybe the owner would let you look
at his/hers.
Question:
1999 Dodge Grand Caravan LE 3.3L mileage:
89,000. I have recently replaced the V
belt on my Caravan. There is a belt tensioner that seemed to be very stiff to
unmovable but I managed to replace the belt.
Now on turns, the car squeals. I
assume it is time to replace the tensioner
but I can only find the pulley not the
tensioner itself. Is this a dealer
part? Is this a do it yourself repair?
How do I fix it? Helpful suggestions
appreciated.Answer:
Yes, the tensioner is a dealer only item
and is not too difficult to replace.
Question: Hi, I have a
question on timing belts. Apparently, my car
has two of them. I wonder if one is a
"backup" in case the other one breaks or
they both fail if one of them breaks.
Thanks! DonAnswer: Each timing belt your
car has is for a separate purpose. One belt
is not a "back up" belt. If one belt fails,
the second is probably close to failing
also.
Question:
1999 Hyundai Elantra 5 speed mileage:
110000. Hi guys, my question is, about a
year ago, I had my timing belt replaced; it
was a preventative maintenance repair, not
because it broke. Then after about 3 months,
my car lost power on the highway one day, I
took it to a repair shop, and it was
determined that the timing belt was not
installed properly (it was off by a couple
of teeth). Ever since then, the car has had
a rough idle. Now because of the rough idle,
it causes the muffler to shake, and make a
weird noise. I'm trying to sell the car now,
but I would like to fix the rough idle
first, if it isn't to expensive. Is raising
the idle speed a little a good thing to do,
or is this an even bigger problem?
Answer:
You can try raising the idle speed but we do
not think it will smooth out the idle. You
may have a bigger problem. Have a
compression check done on the engine; it may
check low. When the timing belt was off "by
a couple of teeth," that changed the timing
between the valves and the pistons. That
change may have resulted in a valve hitting
a piston bending a valve or two.
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