wcoastls

this morning i heard chirping near the belt, sprayed some belt dressing it went away. later after car sat for a while, i started and chirping came back...

looked at the dealer service record and it had "REPLACED TIMING BELT, WATER PUMP, TENSIONERS, IDLE BEARINGS" around 30k miles ago.

does tensioner mean idler pulley?

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

if you can spray it and it goes away, replace your fan belt.

steve2006

There are both a tensioner and idler pulley(s) on the timing belt and the sepentine belt (alternator drive belt).
The sepentine belt idler can make this noise,mine is worse in cold weather for a few minutes until the engine warms up and has been like it for 4 years.
As Billy says check the condition of the belt and replace if worn.
If you look under the hood towards the front edge there should be a sticker on there showing the belt and routing.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

The idler is easily removed so that you can give it a spin test and check for bearing runout. It isn't a big $$ part and if you have a press, you can press the old bearing out and replace. The idler is like a $45 part.

Mine was making a chirping too and the bearing was worn. In my instance this came somewhere around 120K.

wcoastls

thanks dudes. unfortunatey, chirping has now graduated to almost grinding noise... sprayed dressing near idler pulley, helped a lil, but seems to get worse... just gonna replace the idler pulley soon.

maxx999

Check out http://www.planetsoarer.com/cambelt/cambelt.htm it has a good write up with pics for it. It's right down the bottom.

wcoastls

great writeup. grazie maxx999.

wcoastls

so changed the serpentine belt and chirping went away, car idles smooth. however, i noticed the white marks didn't line up at all. attached pic is not my car, but on my ride, the white mark on bottom pulley is WAY left to number 10. shouldn't this line up? if so where and how is this done?

i'm not a mechanic, so if lingo is weird or if this sounds amateurish, i ask for yr understanding and help a brother out.

appreciate it.

deanshark

White mark?? Are you talking about the white chalk mark on the harmonic balancer? If so that's the timing mark when you change the timing belt, not the serpetine belt. Glad to hear the chirp went away. It must have been stretched a little and slipping. Did you check the tensioner pulley to see if there was any play in the bearings while the belt was off?

wcoastls

hey deanshark,
i did check all pulleys and they spin freely/silently with no play so it was the belt.
white mark i'm referring to is single white mark/line that's facing or below the numbers 10 to 0. but this single white mark is nowhere near 10, but way left to it. does this make sense?

deanshark

Yea that would be the timing mark on the harmonic balancer. Nothing to do with the serpentine belt you just changed. Earlier you mentioned that it changed to a grinding noise, did you ever figure out what that was?
Also, in your first post, the tensioner that was changed with the T-belt job would be the T-belt tensioner, not the serpentine tensioner.

wcoastls

i sprayed hell load of belt dressing and maybe it made already brittle belt dry? perhaps that made it sound like it was grinding. i was looking into idler pulley and tensioner for s/belt just in case. and yes after some researching i finally figured out 2 separate system. s/belt and t/belt. thanks to all those who walked this path before i. did u ever get that afm @ j/yard?

deanshark

Also maybe by spraying it so much it might have loosened/freed up the bearing. And no I didn't go to the JY yet. Was gonna go this weekend but things change and money needs to go somewhere else. I still got ya in mind for that center cap though, whenever I get there.

wcoastls

that center cap is like the most difficult thing to find... if u see 1 up to 4, please grab 'em all. chrome with logo. started the car this morning, no chirping,,, happy thus far. and last pic attached was courtesy of maxx999.

sethjon

Idler pulley is only a pulley. The tensioner keeps the tension on the belt. They are good for at least 100K miles and probably more. How many mile son the car?