belt squeeling?

[coolchris]

hey guys for the last few days when i start my car and periodicly while im driving my engine is making a loud squeeling noise. it sounds like it would be comming from the belt... do i just need a new belt or what? or is there something else thats wrong?

 

[mrboyle]

Its possible you just need a new belt, but more than likely there is either a bearing going bad or the tensioner is shot.

 

[Fusion213]

If it's squeeling in the morning when it's cold or whenver you start up, it's probably the belt, but if it's squeeling every now and then while you drive, it could be a pulley. My idler pulley would make this HIGH pitched noise, and eventually, I took a long screwdriver and started putting it near the pulleys and put it up against my ear to listen where the noise was coming from. It's a snap to replace, remove old one, put in new one.

 

[coolchris]

it is doing it mostly in the morning when its cold. it just started doing it and it has been cold out the last few days.. so ill look into changing the belt first. where do you pick up new belts? autozone or napa or pepboys or something like that i would assume? also replacing the belt something i can do myself or do i need a mechanic to do it for me? thanks a lot guys!

 

[VairKing]

Yep, you can get a new belt at any of those places. Replacing the belt is easy, especially on the V6. You just need a metric wrench (forget the size) to take the tension off the belt, then pull it off, and reinstall the new one, just make sure you follow the little diagram. Shouldnt take very long at all

 

[SWLathrop]

My '01 Sport was doing that same thing. My problem was bad bearings in the idler pully. Put the new on on and it started squeeling after about 3 minutes of run time. That problem was the grease from the bad pully got all over the belt. Took the belt off and scrubbed it real good in hot soapy water and flushed all of the pully surfaces down with brake clean. All is quiet under the hood.