I have an 02 Z06 and seem to be dealing with squeaky belt syndrome. I have been thru 2 belts, a can of silicone and non-silicone based lubricants and still making noise.

I had heard that the belt tensioners on the stock setup were not very good at all. Any ideas...I was looking at the Katech tensioners but don't want to take the approach of buying a completely new setup if not needed. Any assistance is greatly appreciated-thanks.

 

Give a shot of Wd-40 spray to the bearing on the tensioner and the alternator pulley itself (not where the belt rides).

Dont forget you also have a seperate tensioner/belt for the A/C compressor as well on the lower passenger side. They may need to be addressed.

It couldnt hurt to change the tensioner pulleys.

If all else fails its possible your crank pulley is on its way out and needs to be replaced. Thats common to causing never ending squeeks. Do the easy and obvious first

Good luck!

 

try gatorback belts, my 01 was driving me crazy and I tried new belts and tensioners with not much luck. Soon as I put the gatorback on it quit. best of luck

 

Another thing to try that costs nothing is to put some toothpaste on the belt and portions of the tensioners, pulleys, that you can get at. If you happen to have belt glaze on the pulleys that usually will take care of it.........tricks from the old folks

 

I had the same thing happen to my verte almost flipped out just owned it for 2 weeks, brought it to the mechanic, he started laughing, of course i didnt think it was funny, he asked when was the last time i driven it i said maybe 2 weeks ago, he said , get this hes laughing right now , he said i need to drive it more often, but as a good meauseure he put some white silicone grease ,but before he did that the noise allready had gone away, so for me it was me not driving it enough, any updated on your squeaking?

 

When ever I have a car that has a belt squeak yet the belt looks good and is not dried out, I place a drop of RTV silicone sealer on both sides of the belt. This reduces noise as the coggs contact the pulleys.

 

Copied this from the General Forum tonight:

Here's a post by forum member Evil-Twin.

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 a little clearer

ET

 

You don't have to remove either belt. Just release the tension one at a time by taking a socket wrench and pushing on the tensioner pulley to relieve the pressure. I had this same problem and Gatorbacks fixed it for about a week. Squeal came back and I finally determined it was the A/C tensioner. I replaced it with a brand new one I got at the local auto parts store for $40. Took me 15 minutes to install the tensioner and 30 minutes to get the dang belts back on.