Alright let me start from the beginning. I bought my 98 bout a month ago. About a week before I bought it the guy I purchased the car from had the harmomic balancer replaced and the belt. Drove fine after I bought it for bout two days then I started noticing a squeak/chirp. So I replaced both belts. A dayco on the maindrive and a gates on the Ac side. Also replaced the ac idler pulley from (auto zone). This fixed my problem for bout 2 days and then it came back. So I started reading on the forums and was told to spray the belt with water and see if the chirp stopped. So I did and it stopped for bout 10 seconds. I also took the main drive belt off and no more chirp. So now its narrowed down to being a belt (I thought). The chirp occurs when the car is first started at idle and after it's warmed up the chirp only occurs during acceleration from anything over 1100 rpm's. The chirp gets faster as I accelerate. (I don't know if that means anything or not.) Also read on here that gatorback belts fix the chirp most of the time, so I ordered one off of Summit racing. So I put the gatorback on and it didnt fix my problem but it really made the chirp alot less noticable. So I went to Auto Zone and bought and replaced the belt tensioner and the idler pulley( one below the alternator) and it still chirping. I figured since replacing the belt and it stopping for a couple days, that it is probably a belt problem. I'm at wits end with the car and I dont no what else to do? I did have a few questions about a few things and hopefully someone could help me.

1. I heard there is a TSB for the idler pulley in the 97-99's. Now being that I replaced the idler already with one from Auto Zone could that still be my problem? Also if it ends up being the new recalled idler pulley(GM) being my solution would spraying water on the belt stop the idler pulley from squealing?

2. Is there a certain torque the harmomic balancer/idler/belt tensioner have to be at?

3. Water being sprayed on the belt stopped it from chirping but when I sprayed belt lube it didn't? Whats the difference? It was the CRC brand belt dressing lube so It wasn't cheap.

4. Now by spraying water on the belt and it quitting does that automatically eliminate the pulley's?

5. Whats the best way to hear the pulley's and see if it is one?
I tried the cardboard tube to each pulley but cant pinpoint the sound?


I'm sorry, I know this has been probably asked a million times before but I tried all the advice on them posts and then some and It still aint fixed my problem. Anyone with any ideas, anyone that has had a similar problem, anyone with anything outside the box,would be TREMENDOUSLY appreciated. Thanks guys!!!

 

Man I was going to say the idler pulley. Do you have the right belt size? Have you checked to make sure everything is aligned right?

 

Try using a mechanics stethoscope to isolate the noise... They're under twenty bucks at sears. Also, you have two tensioner pulleys and two idler pulleys on the car one each for the drive belt and the A/C belt. My money is one it being one of the three you did not replace...

 

I would check to see if the harmonic balancer is properly placed on the crank.It may be causing the belt to be out of alignment with the rest of the pulleys.

 

If you used belt dressing on the belt you will need to remove the belt and clean the grooves out with a wire brush. Never use belt dressing on newer cars. This problem occurs on all of them with mileage and or age. I had one that was so bad I had to soak the pulley on the harmoric balancer with brake cleaner and run the engine without the belt in place and carefully hold a wire brush to get the grooves cleaned out. Most people forget about the idler pulley on the left side of the engine closest to the alternator. I have found that to be the one in most cases that causes the issue after replacement of the others. For some reason people forget about it.

 

I've read on here that if you replace a tensioner you have to replace the corresponding idler (or vice versa) at the same... Otherwise the other pulley on that system will start to squeek soon after...

 

Read some of my hundred posts on this subject..

 

I know the noise is a pain. My '99 started to do the same thing at about 50K miles. Tried all the same things you did with no results. I just learned to live with it (that is why there is a volume adjustment on the radio). Just turned 383K miles and still have the belt noise.

 

That's impressive...

 

Yea the belt is the right size, I got the number from the forum. I'm taking it to GM tomorrow and gonna see what they say. Hopefully they can diagnose it.

 

My 98 vert had the same problem. I replaced the idler pulley from auto zone 12.99 and the serpintine belt which was very dry and cracked for 21.00 auto zone. NO MORE NOISE, SQUUEKS,RATTLES!!!BTW my idler pulley bearing was so bad I was able to hear it rattling by just shaking it. Good luck.

 

This is the first thing I thought of too. It's a huge amount of torque to get that thing seated all the way on the crank nose. If the balancer looks too far forward theres your problem.

 

All it ended up being was the main bolt on the harmonic balancer needed to be tightened

 

You can NOT re tighten the bolt on the C5 Harmonic balancer.. It is a torque once bolt, You can easily loose the engine if you loose the balancer... You need a new bolt and the proper torque procedure. The guy who re-tightened your Balancer bolt should be shot because its very common knowledge that GM factory HB bolts are a one time torque. Never, Ever to be re tightened
Bill aka ET

 

Let me guess, the dealer told you this.

 

Yea I just read my bill...He did install a new bolt.

 

he installed a new bolt???? was it about a 400 repair bill? its a four hour job to take the front end apart, move the steering rack, to get the old bolt out and put in a new bolt. 450 dollars for just the bolt swap. If that wasn't the case he did not replace the bolt.

 

It was 2 hour labor. I took it to the dealer where the corvette tech looked at it. Either way It stopped. I know he did say he had to raise the car up and take the rack off.

 

The bolt that goes thru the pulley is the one he replaced.

 

Hmm, that is interesting and a weird one there, the diagnostics you did certainly pointed toward belt or belt/pulley system alignment to me. Sounds like by re-torquing the bolt the balancer was moved/seated further perhaps thus correcting the belt system alignment issues.