1994 ATX serpentine fan belt squeek

[white1994ATX]

Hey guys, another question to see if anyone else has had this issue.

I have a '94 ATX SHO with 117K on it. It still has the oringinal serpentine fan belt on it (yes I know, ridiculous). The car is part of a collection of cars for me and it was my father's car bought bran new, so I know the whole history and it is not daily driven anymore. I either keep it in my garage at my house when I want to run it a little bit or 2 miles away in my warehouse and rotate it out with another car. It is just a toy for me to play with and is in immaculate condition.

Well anyways, I replaced the serpentine belt with a new GATES belt a few years back from NAPA. I get all of my parts for all cars from NAPA with few exceptions. I know the guys well there and they seem to sell parts that are made better and seem to be better quality than autozone and advance auto and places like that. The new belt chirped and squeeked and made all kinds of racket when installed. As I would sit there at idle and slowly rev the engine, the chirping was comenserate with idle speed and you talk about annoying to listen to.

I tried another belt from a different supplier and the same thing. SO, I am STILL running the cracked and worn ORIGINAL belt that has not failed (yet) with this car and I keep the tools to change it and a new one in the trunk for when it goes and I am across town. I refuse to listen to a noisy belt but this car likes NO belt but the original one it seems. I have tried belt dressing, you name it.....within a few miles she is talking to me again. I simply cannot find a belt that will shut up.

Has anyone else had this issue? All of my pulleys look fine and there are no jagged edges or anything I can visibly see. I have also cleaned all of the oil from the pulleys with brake clean as I had cam and crank seals leaking for a while and thought some blow by might have gotten on the pulleys or that the smoke from the burnoff from the cat converter might have done something to glaze the pulleys with oil residue since that side of the engine is where considerable smoke comes from when you have an oil leak. I thought about taking course sand paper and roughing up the smooth side of the new belt a little to see if that would do anything. I find this issue stupid and really aggravating. Any thoughts?

 

[rubydist]

the pulleys wear as well as the belt. if the belt is 20 years and 100k miles old, it is hard as a rock, so the pulleys are more worn. as a result, when you put a new belt on, it will squeak.

so, you need to look over the pulleys carefully and determine which (maybe all?) are worn badly and replace them with ones that are in better shape.

the only other possibility I know of is that one of the pulleys has somehow gotten misaligned, and again the stickier new belt will squeak while the old hard belt will not.

 

[white1994ATX]

This makes sense, however, all of the pullies look like they are in good shape. The bearings in all of the tensioners(2) are fine and there is no lateral runout. The pulleys all spin perfectly true and there is no wobble to any of them the slightest bit so it is hard for me to start dismantling the engine and trying to find other pullies, but maybe that is what it is going to take. Maybe if I run it long enough with the new belt squeaking, it will work itself in and then be quiet?

 

[rubydist]

usually it will eventually quiet down.

 

[sperold]

I seem to remember that some of the belts are too long (about an inch, I think) right out of the box. Pretty hard to check it now, but it is a possiblilty.

 

[EL SHO]

You can try to lightly sandpaper the pulleys. The contact area with the belt might be too smooth and polished and by lightly sanding the pulleys that new surface would not let the new belt slip in case it is.

Free and fast to try. I did it on my car because the new belt will squeak when getting wet on rainy days and it worked.

 

[Irish Pride]

The lower idler pulley is known to go bad quite often on the ATX cars. If the noise you are referring to sounds like a power steering whine then i will bet that is your problem. That lower idler has a different bearing than all the other pullys and goes bad over time. You can buy a replacement bearing for it for around $20. There is a thread with a link to it here on the forum. I'll post it up when i find it.

 

[Irish Pride]

ATX Lower Idler Bearing

 

[TimboSHO]

How is the auto tensioner? Sometimes the spring will be worn, and it won't hold the belt as tight as it should. I've had several times that I've had to replace belt and tensioner at the same time (on any car, not specifically SHO). I would also be sure to put the belts side by side when they are off and see if the new ones are a touch longer. You can even try getting a little bit shorter belt, but hopefully you have a good relationship with your parts guy and would be able to bring it back if it doesn't work.

 

[white1994ATX]

The lower idler pulley is known to go bad quite often on the ATX cars. If the noise you are referring to sounds like a power steering whine then i will bet that is your problem. That lower idler has a different bearing than all the other pullys and goes bad over time. You can buy a replacement bearing for it for around $20. There is a thread with a link to it here on the forum. I'll post it up when i find it.

I don't have a noise that is like power steering whine. It is a belt chirp. I just did cam and crank seals and had that whole side of the engine torn down to the timing belt. The idlers have no playin the bearings and spin with no granular feel. Thank you for the suggestion though. I know that things can be bad or problematic sometimes and NOT visible to the ***** eye.

How is the auto tensioner? Sometimes the spring will be worn, and it won't hold the belt as tight as it should. I've had several times that I've had to replace belt and tensioner at the same time (on any car, not specifically SHO). I would also be sure to put the belts side by side when they are off and see if the new ones are a touch longer. You can even try getting a little bit shorter belt, but hopefully you have a good relationship with your parts guy and would be able to bring it back if it doesn't work.

I had to take the tensioner off when I did the cam seals....the springload feels good to me, very tight and so forth. However, if I put a new one on would it hold more pressure on the belt....I am sure it would as this one is 18 years old and has been applying spring pressure that whole time. The little added pressure from the tensioner might shut it up as might the pulleys being cleaned, lightly sanded. I am going to try these things when I have some time. All good suggestions that might make the new belt ride quietly.