I bought this C5 last week and had no problems; however, the weather changed drastically this week. Wet and cold the last few days, and the chirping started. Pretty constant from the front of the motor. I'm thinking the serpentine belt just.need tightening. I don't have any repair or shop manuals, yet, so I'm working from my personal knowledge and past experience. Hopefully one or more of the better prepared C5 owowners can guide me.

Is the tensioner on the passenger's side front of motor? If so, is there a recommended setting for torque or is it simply tighten until squeak subsides?

Thanks in adadvance for your help.

 

Welcome!

Your car has spring-loaded belt tensioners (one main and one AC) so there is no tightening that can be done. However, it is always possible that they have weakened. Do you get a squeal on startup or when you turn the steering wheel?

You don't state what your mileage is? How old are your belts? Do you see any fraying on the edges of the belts?

Here are a few things to check:

Check idler pulleys for noise. Remove the belts and spin the pulleys.

Verify the crank pulley for any significant wobble. The best way that I have found to do this is to use a laser pointer. Aim it at the crank pulley grooves and look for any side to side wobble. A very slight wobble is normal. Anything more than that requires a new crank pulley. You also need to check that the pulley has not disbonded from the rubber insulator and moved inwards/outwards. At the same time, check the alignment of all pulleys.

If everything checks out, you can try changing the belts. A lot of members have had excellent results with the Goodyear Gatorbacks.

Just a piece of advice; do not use any belt dressing. This will not solve your issue. It may be a short term fix but the noise will be back.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

More times than not it turns out to be one of the idler pulleys, either A/C or the one by the P/S pump!

Thanks,Matt

 

the change in temp will cause this...does it go away after it warms up?

 

Use the search feature - there are innumerable threads on here about belt chirping. To see if it's the serpentine belt, drip a little water on it as it turns. If the noise disappears it's the belt. Remove the serpentine belt and run the car for a few seconds and if the noise is still there, it's obviously not the belt - could be anything else that turns, any pulley or the harmonic balancer. And don't forget there are 2 belts - the other one is for the AC, so see if the noise changes when the AC is on. It pays to try and find the source of the noise instead of just replacing all the belts and tensioner pulleys and idler pulleys to try and solve it. If you take the belt off, you might try and put it on in the reverse direction, sometime that stops the chirp. If you replace the belt get the Goodyear Gatorback as I and everyone else on here can testify it stops the chirp (I tried another one first and it started chirping again after a few months, mostly when the car was cold and disappeared after a few minutes when everything warmed up). If you do remove the belt and try to spin the idler and tensioner pulleys, they should have a little resistance or friction in them - they do not spin or rotate freely because of the grease in them. If they do rotate freely and keep spinning after you make them do that, they probably need to be replaced as the grease is gone or shot.

 

Let me start by saying a hearty Thank YOU! to all those that have responded. I've taken all of the advise to heart and I think I'm figuring it out. So let me respond to some of the comments. I'll simply take them order as they've appeared.

I had some idea of the tensioners, but have never had to fool with them in the past. Understanding better about them wearing out (something I should have known) will help as I run down the sound.

I went today, with the temperature in the 40s, and started it up. Yes, it does seem that it was much worse when the temps dropped recently. I had noticed for a few minutes once before, but it went away within a few minutes. This time, though, the squell sticks around much longer. Today it took almost 45 minutes for it to subside.

The sound is also coming fairly clearly from the front more on the driver's side than anywhere else. I had the hood open and my mat on the floor as I listened to it on first startup.

Just over 64k on a 2000 manual shift. I've owned the car for about a month, and the records are not complete. I don't know how old the belts are and the fellow I bought it from didn't know either (he had the car for about 15k miles and did not change them in that time). If my recollection is correct, on my C4s the magic mileage for watching the belts start around 60k miles, and included an evaluation of the wear and how the car is driven.

In doing my due diligence I spoke with the past two owners. Both were older fellows (50s & 60s) and told me they were very conscientious owners. Both sold the car to go to a new model. Same story with the guy I bought it from, though he was only in his mid-30s.

After getting dirty getting in and out around the belt it appears that it is probably the belt, but I can't yet say it's not a pully. Just too cold today to lay on the ground and work on removing the belt to check those things (especially with arthritis). So I'll take it to one of the mechanics associated with the local Corvette club.

I'm afraid it may be one of those, and that means probably a bit more $$ to change out. Oh well, that's the cost of owning a car you believe should always be treated well.

Just like a guy nearing 60 with both Osteoarthritis & Rheumatoid Arthritis. Colder weather makes my pulleys whine and squell as well. :-)

As I noted, the first week I owned the car it was in the 50s and low 60s; so the only time I heard the squell I thought it was the power steering but it went away quickly. This time, though, it's sticking around a lot longer, but did go away when the car was good and warm.

I found 'em and thanks for the suggestion.

[/QUOTE] To see if it's the serpentine belt, drip a little water on it as it turns. If the noise disappears it's the belt.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm ... I hadn't heard of that, I'll try it tomorrow.

I did see in some of those other posts that the Gatorbacks seem to work pretty well, so I'll check into those as well.

Again, thanks for the advise.

 

Yep, Gatorback fixed the cherp in my 99. Amazon was like $15 cheaper than my local auto parts store for the belt too.

 

Gatorbacks fixed the chirps on my new-to-me '98 convertible. Amazon has them to you in two days, 10-15 minutes with a wrench on the tensioners and you're good to go!