Some noises coming from fanbelt area

[Maximboy69]

Alright, so I've been having a squeek noise coming from the fan belt area for a few months now. When it started it was barely audible and very infrequent. It would start squeeking and then stop, but mostly it was quiet. Now it makes the noise about half the driving time (in and out for 5-10 minutes at a time). Of course now its quite loud. So Im pretty sure its the pullies on the fan belts and I'm just planning on ordering the parts and replacing those pullies (as well as the belts, now that Im at it anyway). The belts dont actually look worn and there are no cracks. Is there anything else I should be checking? Anything I should be aware of before doing this?

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Well, here's some tests to ensure you are changing the right things.

First of all, the belt will probably look fine even if it is worn. Its not that it is necessarily damaged, but that its stretched to wide. There are 3 indication marks on the tensioner assembly, one is a little arrow that's on the pulley side, and the other 2 are beginning and end marks. If your pulley is at or beyond the second mark (just look at how it turns and it should make sense), then definately the belt.

To test if you have bad pulleys is also fairly easy. Usually the 2 to go are the idler pulley on the top of the engine and the tensioner (Which you have to replace as an assembly). I would say if you have the money, you might as well just change them both, but to test if that's where the squeak is coming from, spray some WD40 in where the bearing is (with it off). Be careful not to get the belt too much. If this eliminates the noise, that's the pulley that's bad (the bearings usually go dry).

The last thing I can think is you might want to check the Fan's clutch. With the engine totally cold, you should be able to spin the fan. If not, you have a bad clutch (but, I doubt this would happen).

Not much else I can think of.