Drive belts

Hello,

Here is a guide that should help with diagrams below to show you how on your car

https://www.2carpros.com/diagrams/nissan/altima/2003

Please let us know if you need anything else to get the problem fixed.

What you typed doesn't make sense, but if the belt is smoking, a pulley is locked up. Which one should be pretty easy to identify once the belt is removed.

There is no such thing as "tighten it just snug enough". No pulley is adjusted that way. Idler pulleys will have a bearing in the middle that needs to be clamped solidly by the bolt that goes through the center of it. If that bolt is loose, it can allow that pulley to turn or tip slightly. That will cause the belt to slide sideways across it as it goes around it, and that will generate a lot of heat, but it almost always sets up an irritating squeal too.

The AC compressor is typically not a likely suspect because you would have to have two separate problems. The clutch would have to be seized which would simply make the compressor run all the time, and the compressor would have to be locked up.

Try to sight down the pulleys from on top to see if there is one where the edge of the belt peeks out or is not perfectly inline with where it goes around the other pulleys. If you can see where the belt is running off-center, compared to the other pulleys, by as little as 1/16", that is enough to set up a squeal. This can be hard to do because moving your eyes just a little to either side can make the belt appear to be off. This works best when there are three pulleys that you can sight through, such as the crankshaft pulley, the generator or power steering pump on top, and an idler or tensioner pulley in between them.

The squealing almost always occurs where the smooth backside of the belt goes around an idler pulley. Squealing is less likely to occur where the ribbed side goes around a ribbed pulley. Ribbed pulleys are attached to things too that have relatively little tendency to tip or turn.

Ok first are you sure that is what it making your noise? I am sure it is a bearing but it could be the alternator bearing or the tensioner bearing and so on. If you have a long screw driver or something like it use it like a stethescope and listen them by toughing it so the braket or what metal is very close to the pulley and on the alternator case and make sure were the noise is coming from. If it is the idler pulley with some help you should be able to replace it. Let me know what you find and we will go from there.

Dandy. That narrows it down a lot. It looks like there's just the idler pulley and the AC compressor. The compressor pulley should spin very easily with one finger. In the front of it you'll see that metal disc with the three bolts in it. You should be able to turn that too but it is going to turn rather hard. The important thing is it will turn with no clunking or locking up. If that happens, the compressor will have to be replaced.

Next, look at that idler pulley. That one is usually adjustable to tighten the belt, and most of the time they are not spring-loaded like the other one. They have to have something loosened to allow it to be moved, then you make the adjustment, then tighten down whatever holds it in place. On some cars that means loosening that nut in the center of the pulley, adjusting it, then retightening that nut. If that nut is loose, it will allow the bearing and pulley to tip and will cause a squeal.

Yes it could be the water pump, using the rod against your ear is the way to listen for it. Did you check all the idler and tensioner pulleys that you could get too?

Well then there is only one other way to check it and that is pull it off and feel and listen to it. Sorry it took so long to get back you we are having a lot of snow here in north idaho we got another 12 inches just today now I have more then 3 feet on the ground so I have been snow blowing and such. Thanks for you patience.

Yes it could but more important, make sure all the pulleys are ok and not broken or chipped. The tensioner is a common failure as it wears and does not let the belt run straight.

Roy