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This squealing noise came back 6 months later, and now I've been dealing with it on and off since this thread was created. It's driving me absolutely nuts. Even more so with the 1/2 Mile event approaching this weekend.
I've tried replacing the belt twice, replaced the crank pulley (using Innovators West, which is now using another different belt), replaced an A/C pulley that appeared to be bad, and then it went away. After getting the car on a dyno, then hitting it a few times on the street to check A/F, the darn squealing is back AGAIN and worse than ever. We tracked the source of the noise down to what we thought was the Fan and Coolant Pump Idler Pulley. I bought one of those and went to replace it, but can't use the bearing retainers off the OEM unit if I do. While I had the OEM pulley out, it appeared to be perfectly fine so I re-installed it. I tightened the hell out of the belt last night, and will be starting it up this afternoon to see if it's still squealing.
I've run it past a few local guys familiar with the LS engines, and they say the play is the same even on new PS pulleys they have or have ran into.
Im absolutely lost on this one, and getting very frustrated. I've squirted the backs of the bearings with WD40 and sprayed the belt with water with no change in sound. I've replaced the A/C idler and Fan and Coolant Pump idler. The PS pulley has some noise, but it seems acceptable. I've replaced the belt 3 times, and replaced the harmonic balancer. The alignment was checked with the Gates laser alignment tool that I was assured was in calibration and double checked. There is no belt dust and it's not breaking belts, so nothing indicating alignment issues besides noise.
At this point, I'm $1000+ deep into this annoying noise with no resolution in sight, and it's been an intermittent issue since 2014. It seems I have no choice but to let it squeal until something breaks. Does anyone have any ideas?
Did you run it without the ac belt on to make sure that's not causing an issue?
I'm not sure if the guy I had replace the balancer checked it like that. Don't mind doing it myself, but I'm not sure how offhand. I'll have to research it.
He did replace the A/C idler pulley though, as it definitely seemed bad. He handed it to me afterward and it squeaked like hell just spinning it in my hand.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 06-13-2018 at 02:20 PM.
I'm chasing startup squeal on mine but I have a 4 belt arrangement with the A&A flip drive. I'm basically going to start yanking belts and starting it to find the culprit. It'll be harder with your two belt arrangement tho. AC belt is the only one you can remove.
I'm chasing startup squeal on mine but I have a 4 belt arrangement with the A&A flip drive. I'm basically going to start yanking belts and starting it to find the culprit. It'll be harder with your two belt arrangement tho. AC belt is the only one you can remove.
Well, I've darn near replaced everything already on the main belt side, so...
Looks like the A/C tensioner and tensioner pulley were replaced, but not the A/C idler above it. I'll see what I can do about pulling the A/C belt tonight and see if the noise quits when I fire it up. I'll spray the hell out of that pulley first with WD40 to see if it has an affect.
Thanks!
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 06-13-2018 at 03:33 PM.
Ughhh it's these stupid little annoyances like this that don't want me to get a blower, belt squeal, throwing a belt. Dammit lol
Yeah, it's always something.
I'm 99% sure it's not the belt squealing though. It hasn't broke a belt using the same belt for 500mi now, and I did 8 dyno pulls and 3 1/2 mile runs. The noise isn't any better, but the belt is perfectly fine. Since I've replaced darn near everything on the front of that engine, it has to be the A/C Idler Pulley or the Power Steering pulley. Unless the Water Pump is making the noise...which I seriously doubt.
The bummer of it all is, I took the car to a 1/2 mile event and found 3 nails in the tire. I came back home (3.5hr drive one way) and intended to swap the R888R's over from my other C5Z and drive all the way back the next day...but the engine was squealing so damn loud at that point I just said the hell with it. I need to get this fixed, as I've put over $1000+ into it and it just cost me a $400 1/2 mile weekend on top of that.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 06-17-2018 at 08:09 PM.
I feel your pain, man. Believe me, I feel your pain. NOTHING is more annoying about these cars then the "intermittent C5 belt squeals".
I finally fixed the problem when I swapped my cam. When I popped the bearing covers off of the idler/tensioner pulleys, all four were BONE DRY. I cleaned out all four with gasoline and brake clean and then repacked them will ball bearing grease. Brand new belts went back on. Honestly, fu(k the cam swap. When I fired it up and there was no belt squeal......
04-14-2014, 09:32 AM
