99 auto.

I am having consistant belt squeal. It gets louder and faster as the rpms rise. Never stops. I replaced both belts last winter so I doubt thats the issue. Anyone ever have consistant squeal and narrow it down?

I know I need to dig in there and check it out but I am confused where to start and some tricks to narrow it down. Anyone have any advice?

 

What belts did you replace with? I chased this issue and had to replace even new belts to get rid of the noise. I ended up having to use Goodyear Gatorbacks to fix it for good.

 

it may not be the belts, it could be a belt tensiner or pulley. Do a search on "belt tensioner". this is a very common problem.

 

The first thing that you want to check is the harmonic balancer. Look for excessive wobble and make sure the bolt has not come loose and it is "walking" forward. If that looks fine, the tensioners would be next. The main one is very easy and fairly inexpensive to replace. There is also one on the A/C belt. You can remove one belt at a time and run the engine to try and isolate which belt/ tensioner is the culprit.
I would replace the tensioners and throughly clean/scuff with scotch brite/ clean all of the pulleys with brake cleaner and replace with Gatorback belts.

Good luck.

 

X2 on cleaning the pulleys, especially the smooth ones for the AC, which turned out to be the culprit in my case.

Rather than just change all your tensioners and idlers, you could pop off the outer belt and start the car and see if the squeak goes away or not. This would chop your problem in half to reveal the culprit.

 

Thanks guys, This is a pain. I had a small squeal last year and Fixed it with new belts. but its back and worse. Sounds like a beater and people look at me like I cant afford the gas in the car.

 

I repost this anytime I see a "belt" post...

Your problem may not be the same as mine. I had a chirpy belt for 2 days then discovered my ballancer bolt had come loose and the ballancer was moving forward...I Caught it before somthing bad happened like it coming completly off. Good idea to ensure your belt is in all of the grooves on the ballancer.

Also...found this on website:
When your belt displays any of the following:
-squeals when accelerating.
-chirps constantly
-squeals constantly
-squeals when wet or moist outside
-squeals when cold
-or any combination of the above.

The belt must be replaced, but wait... If you replace the belt it may stop for a while but then the noise comes back. This is because the old belt was slipping and has polished the pulleys or "glazed" them. So before you replace that noisy belt scrub all of the pulleys well with a scotch brite pad, or a good wire brush to remove the glaze and rough up the surface. Clean them off with brake cleaner afterward. Belts work by friction so if the surface is polished too much the belt will slip. If you have already put on a new belt and it is making noise, -sorry you must buy a new one again. Slipping on the pulleys will glaze a new belt fast which ruins it. Some people say you can apply brake cleaner etc to a new belt to fix it but that may not work well. If it slips it will just mess up your newly cleaned pulleys and you will have to scrub them up all over again. So do the job right and rough up the pulleys AND replace the belt at the same time.

 

Thanks guys. Ill pull the front belt off and see if I can narrow anything down before I go and grap some new gator backs and scrub all the pulleys. Ill report what my issue was in a couple days.

 

Just had the same problem in my 99 vert. Was the harmonic balancer. Also replaced the seal behind it. Purrrrrrs like a tiger now. Now on to the squeeky front and rear suspension issues I am having. KB :>)

 

I had an idler pulley that was squeaking...

You can try shooting some WD-40 around the bearing area of the idler pulleys if the squeak stops you found your problem.. Good way to narrow down your problem.

 

If it doesnt have a bearing in it like the harmonic balancer, then what makes it squeak? So I am thinking it could be any of the pulleys in the engine bay? I ordered my gator backs yesterday and should be in soon. I will first spray some wd-40 in each pulley to see if I can find a noisy pulley, then cut off the first belt if no luck. Then powerwash the pulley area to get all little rocks and debris out of there, then scotch brite and break cleaner them.

 

The c5 used an autotensioer so the belt shouldn't be squeaking unless the tensioner is bad. Normally belts squeak when they are way too loose.

I am willing to bet your sqeak is one of the idler pullys. Do you wash your engine often?

 

The squeak or chirping can come from a misaligned pulley causing the belt to "shimmy" or a slight side to side movement on the pulleys. The design of the Gatorback belts seem to suppress this if not a major misalignment.

It can be a bearing but, but you can rule them out if spraying water or ??? on the belt temporarily quiets the noise.

I am not a "belt and pulley engineer" , but I have dealt with this on my Vette and now have quiet belts without changing every pulley and or bearing.

 

Run with the A/C belt off. It there is no noise the problem is on the A/C set of pulleys
If there is noise, it is on the main system

Hand spin all pulleys.. if the spin smooth and straight they are good. If one feels "gritty" that's likely the culprit.

If diagnosed on the main system and all pulleys check out, check the balancer It should be wobble free.

If on the A/C belt and all pulleys check out, then it is the A/C clutch bearings.

 

FWIW changed out my AC idler and tensioner. The old idler spun like a roller blade. New one is viscous and did not spin in your hand. The idler was the squeel issue. Changed out the PITA tensioner also while in there which was not easly with the tranny coolant lines fighting you all the way. New Gatorback and Gates belts on and all is well. So glad got this done in Fall.

 

I'm having the same problem. I had to replace the balancer because of a massive rain storm. Now I have a squeak.