What are the pros and cons of these on a stock c5? Hoping it will stop my belt from making noise.

 

The Katech solid billet tensioner is NOT Self-adjusting.

Therefore, if you buy and install it, you will continually have to check and adjust your belt tension.

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Rather than throwing money away, it would be better to identify the problem first, you have two serp. belt, two tensioners, two idlers, and five other pulleys, between the drive belt system and the ac belt system, anyone could be the cause of the noise..

here are some suggestions:

You have two belt systems on your car. One is the drive belt system, the other is the air conditioner belt system.
The drive belt system consists of the serpentine belt,the power steering pump, alternator/gen, water pump, harmonic balancer, idler pulley,belt auto tensioner pulley.
The AC belt system consists of the compressor, harmonic balancer,idler pulley, belt auto tensioner pulley.
First thing you need to do is isolate which system is squeaking. this can be done by releasing tension on the drive belt tensioner and removing the serp belt. This is the outboard belt of the two belt systems..if the squeak goes away, then it is the belt or a component of the drive system.
If the squeak is still there, then it is a component of the ac belt system.
to verify this release the belt tension from the tensioner and remove the belt. if the squeak goes away, then it is a component of the ac belt system..
A common problem is the belt tensioner on either system.. but verifying which system is at fault is the proper procedure.
You could replace both belts, but you may still have the squeak. So if you want to find the culprit, isolate the system, then spray the belt of the offending system and see if the squeak goes away. Try to stay away from the idler and tensioner while spaying..
I find that belt dressing may be good to identify a belt problem, but it is a temporary fix at best..
The real problem has been the tensioner and the idler.. both of these components have a sealed bearing which has been know to dry up or redirect the grease away from the bearing, thus causing the squeak.
If you find that a belt change does not correct the problem, then a change of both the idler and tensioner pulley is in order. If you just change the idler or the tensioner alone, it will cause the other component to go bad in a month or so. This has been the case with many members..There was a change made to the dusts seals to help correct this problem in newer C5's.
Lots of tensioner and idler pulleys have been identified as a problem.. and it can effect either system. One is not more prevalent than the other. So find out which system is squeaking first, in the drive belt system, it could also be the bearing of the alternator, power steering pump, or water pump too, but these are less probable.
I hope this makes things alittle clearer

ET

 

Great advice Evil. I had been my 99 with 74,000 miles on it for about a year with the noise coming and going whenever there seem to be alot of moister in the air. Two weeks ago it became constant and I just got tired of hearing it every morning when I started it up. I thought mine was tensioner and idler problem. My service guy did this same test and found neither was the problem, he replaced both belts and I haven't had any noise since and I'm driving it every day.

 

Thanks for the advice. Just thought I would replace tensioner with a better one. So it is best to stay with the factory self adjustable one?

 

For most people, the stock auto tensioner works well.