Greetings All,

New to the forum, In April I bought a 99' with 30k. It had a sqweek in the belt, pully area. They put a new tensioner on and it when away. Two weeks later the sqeek was back. This time they changed all the pullys, the other tensioner, still sqweekin. Changed the Gates belt....no sqweek. Two weeks later........sqweeks back. When the motor gets up to temp and I drive about ten miles.......no sqweek. Cold.... IT SQEEEEKS. I hope somebody has an idea, this sqeekin is driving me crazy. I don't even know how to spell sqweeek! Please help

 

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.
At 30000 miles, 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. Harmonic balancer has been giving lots of problems too.
I hope this makes things alittle clearer

ET

 

Thanks ET for the detailed info. Very helpful. I will give the isolation a try. The belt tensioners and idlers were both replaced as well as pulleys. I tried belt dressing and for the first second, it goes away then gets louder for a minute or two. Soon as the motor warms up it goes away. Thank you again, you made it very clear

Mike

 

It will probably squeak till all the pulleys are in alignment. changing pulleys only drains your wallet. There is probably a bent bracket or something causing the misalignment, and changing all of them at once won't help figure out which one's not right.

 

There was a TSB for an accessory drive squeak for the 1997 - 1999 C5's with the LS1 engine. You can view it here: http://corvetteactioncenter.com/kb/q....php?qstId=258

Replacement of the idler pulley specified in the TSB eliminated the squeak on my 1999 C5. (There are two idler pulleys - the defective one is located under the alternator). I know you said "....they changed all the pullys (sic)...." but are you sure they changed this idler pulley?

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the web site. Great info. No, I am not 100% sure that they changed that pulley. But I will find out and act accordingly.