hey guys chrisfix here you hear the
squeaking noise today I'm gonna show you
how to tell where the squeaking noise is
coming from whether it's a bell or a
pulley and if it's the belt I'm gonna
explain why it could be the belt there's
different reasons why the belt might
squeak and if it's the pulley I'm gonna
show you how to diagnose which pulley is
causing the noise and why it might be
causing a noises a bat bearing is a
pulley misalignment and have a very
useful and easy method to show you how
to do all this so before we begin I want
you to pay attention here in this car
the fan is on all the time in some cars
your fan isn't going to be on all the
time either way keep your hands clear of
this fan it'll take your finger off it's
not safe so there are four common causes
for belt noise one is the belt is old
itself belts last anywhere from five
years 50,000 miles to over ten years
100,000 miles and it really depends but
around five years 50,000 miles you might
start having enough belt wear to cause
some squeaking the next common cause of
squeaking is your bearing in the pulley
you have a bunch of pulleys here you
have power steering you have air
conditioning you have idler pulleys
tensioner pulleys alternator pulleys all
these pulleys have bearings in them and
eventually bearings go bad typically
it's either an idler pulley bearing or
it's a tensioner pulley bearing that
goes bad but you can have other pulleys
that go bad such as the alternator or
power steering if that ends up being the
case I have videos on how to replace
both of those I'll put those video links
in the description below the other
common cause of belt squeak is the belt
tension the tensioner on a belt is
usually automatic tensioner it's just a
spring-loaded pulley and this pulley
puts just the right amount of pressure
on the belt so if your belt is worn out
the pulley might not be able to give you
enough pressure on the belt so it slips
and that causes a squeak usually when
that's the case if you turn your air
conditioner on or if you're making a
turn and your power steering pump goes
on that's when you'll hear the squeak
and I'll get into a little bit more
about that in a couple seconds another
symptom of a bad belt tensioner or not
having enough or too much tension on the
belt is that in the morning when it's
humid out or when your belt is a little
wet from do you start it up and it makes
a loud squealing noise and that loud
squealing noise goes away or if you use
the water method and spread the belt
with water and it squeals that usually
means there's a problem with the belt
tension so it could be an old belt
that's stretched out or your belt
tensioner spring is worn out
new belt tensioner and the final common
problem is a pulley misalignment
actually this is probably the most
common problem so in this situation you
can hear the belt squeak that my truck
has yours might sound different yours
might sound the same either way I'm
about to show you how to diagnose the
squeak the first thing you want to do is
get a spray bottle with just plain water
in it and spray it on the RHIB side of
the belt find the easiest pulley to
spray just squirt it on there you don't
need a lot and you could hear right away
the belt stops squeaking now the belt is
still moving the pulleys are still
moving so since the noise went away and
all the pulleys are still moving you
have a good idea that this probably
isn't a bearing in a pulley now let's
say you still hear the noise after you
spray the belt and the noise is the same
noise it doesn't change that means the
problem is probably a bad bearing in a
pulley if you spray the belt and the
noise gets louder your belt tension is
probably too tight or it's too loose and
that could be due to a bad tensioner
pulley or a worn-out belt which is
stretched out do the Aged now for this
situation here the belt got quiet with
water so we have either a bad belt or a
pulley misalignment so we're gonna look
for the pulley misalignment first all
you have to do is look at each pulley
and you just want to see if the belt is
riding straight on the pulley or if it's
moving side-to-side
you could also watch the pulley itself
if you look at the edge of the pulley
and make sure the pulley is running true
so it's running straight if the pulley
is wobbling that could cause the belt to
squeak so we're gonna look at the power
steering pump pulley first that looks
good it's running nice and straight
we're gonna look at the air conditioner
compressor pulley next that also looks
pretty good I might be seeing some belt
movement from side to side it's hard to
tell it's a very very small amount so
we're gonna investigate further but you
could see the pulley itself is running
true it's nice and straight and even the
belt is running pretty straight even
though we might be seeing a little
side-to-side movement now we'll move
over to the idler pulley the idler
pulley looks like it's running straight
the squeak does sound like it's coming
from this general area so it's
definitely good to try to locate the
general area the squeak is coming from
is it coming from the left side the
engine the right side underneath up top
we'll move over to the alternator
because I don't really see anything here
now here you can see something the
alternator pulley is running true it's
nice and straight but check out that
belt that belt is definitely wobbling
back and forth
that little wobble is enough to make a
squeak remember the belt is under
pressure and it's spinning pretty quick
so that right there could be where we
have our squeak problem and you could
kind of hear that the belt is starting
to squeak again so what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna get some water and just make
sure that the squeak goes away and again
we spread some water on there and the
squeak goes away now the belt on my
truck is brand new we tested the belt
with the water the noise went away and
we did see the belt move side to side on
the alternator pulley just a little bit
so all of those things lead me to think
that this is a pulley misalignment issue
now the belt that I'm using is a daco
belt and they are notorious for
squeaking with a very slight pulley
misalignment pulley misalignment is
literally just when the pulleys are not
completely straight maybe one pulley
like the idler pulley is sticking out a
little bit and the rest of the pulleys
are in or maybe your alternator pulleys
in too far and the rest of pulleys are
out either way the belt isn't completely
straight now a slight pulley
misalignment it doesn't do anything it
doesn't hurt your car or anything but it
will cause that annoying squeak so the
solution for that is to use a different
belt like I said this belt is brand new
it has less than 5,000 miles on it it
started squeaking from day one so what
I'm gonna do is I'm gonna replace it
with one of these Gator back belts and
you can see right on the package it says
the quiett belt I'll put a link in the
description to where you could get it I
highly recommend these belts if you're
having a pulley misalignment type of
squeak and I'll show you why in a couple
seconds with the belt out you can see
this thing is brand new it looks really
good
it's just squeaking like crazy the other
thing is you could see the difference in
design between the Gator back belt and
the Daco belt the Gator back belt has
all these ridges and stuff and I think
that helps in keeping it quiet for a
pulley misalignment so let's go install
this bad boy
okay so let's start it up with the new
Gator back belt on there and see if we
get any squeak
so what do you know sounds like it's
working great no more squeaking finally
how's you driving me crazy
we check out the alternator pulley you
can see look at that it's still kind of
moving back and forth but the squeak is
gone it so goes to show you that the
Gator back belt does a good job with the
holy misalignment issue now in this
situation we didn't have a bearing issue
there's no bad bearings making a noise
well let's just say you did what you
would do to find the bad bearing is you
would listen in the engine compartment
for where you think the noise is coming
from in this situation it sounded like
it was coming from over here somewhere
so what you would do is you'd go and
with the engine off obviously grab the
pulley and shake the pulley back and
forth and that pulleys should be solid
it shouldn't move some pulleys might
have a little play usually the power
steering pulley has a little play in it
mine's actually pretty tight which is
good but sometimes they have a little
play and there are some tolerances you
can't have some play in some pulleys for
example we look here at the idler pulley
I can move that just a little bit now
it's not moving a lot but there is a
slight play to it and that's okay for
this idler pulley that's common on Fords
but now you wouldn't want to see that
play in a alternator pulley and the
alternator pulley here is not moving at
all it's nice and solid if you want to
take the belt off and wiggle the pulleys
back and forth if you can't find the
pulley that's bad usually a bad bearing
will cause the pulley to wobble a lot so
that pretty much covers everything so if
you have a squeal or squeak under your
hood you'll be able to find what's
causing the problem and you'll be able
to fix it hopefully this video was
helpful if it was remember to give it a
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button now the top tip for this video is
you have that old belt or in this case
it's a new belt but let's just say your
belt was actually old and worn out don't
throw it out it's a good emergency
backup belt to keep in your car or your
truck what I like to do is I like to
fold it up put it back in here and then
I'll put this underneath my seat
actually you can see I already have an
old belt here which is under my seat
this is my original belt you can see all
the cracking and stuff on it so I'll
remove the original belt and put the new
belt under the seat for a backup now if
you're on a trail or if you're driving
somewhere
belt snaps or something happens for some
strange reason you won't be stranded