Serpentine belt squealing- I might have some good advice

[JethroBodine]

Sprays and lubes are for quick fixes of the symptom( created by people trying to take money from people who are looking for "the magic pill", not a cure for the disease. That squealing noise is telling you there is something wrong, not that your engine is trying to annoy you.

[BadDog98]

I have always had bad luck with my serpentine belts squealing. On a Blazer and My Jimmy. The other day I noticed the crank pulley had just a tiny wiggle in it as it was running. My buddy had just changed out an V6 engine just like mine and still had the old one in the back of his truck full of all things metal before the scrap yard run. So I swapped pulleys (didn't cost me a dime I had nothing to loose) and low and behold it made all the difference in the amount of noise coming from my belt.

[BadDog98]

I almost forgot I'm getting out the wire brush too. To rid myself of whats left of the squealing demons on that worn belt.

[Lethedethius]

Try using comet. Comet will help in dis glazing it. obviously if you put powder near a running belt you will get the same result as trying to pour oil into a running engine. The best option; safety! Turn the dang engine off, take some comet and put it in your hand, spit in your hand to make it not powdery anymore and rub it on the belt in a few places, both the under and top side, see if that helps. I did it to my truck tonight after reading some pieces about it.

belt noise, how do you eliminate it 1995 f150 - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

Just my 2 cents. Hope my serp belt doesn't get too rugged and fall apart haha!

[user removed]

I was getting my Maxima inspected the other day. The inspector is my next door neighbor. He was reversing the direction of rotation of another neighbors serpentine belt on a 94 Ford F150 to make it stop squealing. It seemed to work. I had never heard of doing it before. I do think roughing up the pully surfaces would help.

regards
Mech

[zermac]

Originally Posted by mikeross

How do I stop the serpentine belt from squealing? My belt was just replaced and it still has a slight squeal to it! I've heard that you can lubricate the belts slightly! What would be the best formula or lubricant to use? Oil, power steering fluid or what? Thanks.

Silacone grease.... A little dab el do ya! Ya sounds slippery put a glob about the size of two peas on each side of the scweeky belt and start, a waalaa scweek is gone. Warning as said before a little dab is all you need if it doesn't work,
Go but a new belt! If this is a car that get driven over ten mile to or from
A job don't be dum buy a new belt so your not that ******** blocking traffic on the hi way with a car that lost a belt.

[gasstingy]

On my wifes Buick, back when it was just a baby {~3 years old}, I siliconed the original serpentine belt periodically to quite the squeal. Then the belt broke and destroyed the underhood mat and I had to stop on the side of the road. Had to pay a ridiculous amount of money at the dealer to replace the mat in addition to buying a new belt. I don't make it a practice of spraying silicone on the belt anymore. I buy a belt.

[zermac]

Dab dab dab who said spray? You left out some details about the wife's car like mileage, spray silicone is quite different, as far as you buying a hood blanket from the dealer after a belt braking.... If you want to dyi do the research, then do more research!

[gasstingy]

OK, details...
1990 Buick Century 3.3 V6, bought new 05/05/90. This happened when it was about 3 years old, so ~1993. Mileage back then would have been ~ 18,000. Trusted mechanic suggested spray silicone to quiet squealing belt. Tried it and it worked. Did it several times over a period of about 6 months or so. Serpentine belt broke most of the way across and beat the underhood mat up. Couldn't not fix the wifes car halfway, so the new pad.

In 1993, not many ways to research a topic like this. Live and learn. Times are a bit different now. I can look to others, like yourself, who are apparently smarter than I am for their life lessons.

[straight5]

Most of the advice in this thread has been good. Silicone, or soap ect for temporary fixes. As was pointed out though, if the belt is squealing, there is a reason for it.
One problem that maybe needs a little more attention is the bad pulley.
BadDog started on this but there is more. Over the years, I've tried just about everything mentioned - grease, oil, armor all, wire brushes, greased pulley bearings, belt conditioner, shimming accessories - on different cars of course.
One problem I had with a loud belt was really getting to me. I'd put on a Goodyear Gatorback (the best in my book) and checked everything to make sure it was straight ect. Well it turns out that on my Volvo with 250k miles on it, that the grooves on the crank pulley were worn out. It didn't wobble or anything, and the metal ridges looked plenty tall. The problem was that the ridges were worn in such a way that they were too narrow. That allowed the belt to "bottom out" against the crank pulley. Though that doesn't seem like it would cause a problem (because look how much contact area you have) let me tell you it can.
As you can see in this picture, proper fitment doesn't allow the belt to bottom out.