nirvana94

the belt on my 98z is squeaking like a bitch i pulled the idler pulley off and regreased the bearings it seemed fine i turned and tried to wiggle every other pulley but all seemed fine the belt probably has 400 miles on it and looks new and when its running and i put water on it and it stops squeaking for a little while so am i missing something or is the belt just a piece of ****? will belt dressing help and if it does is it just a temporary fix? if i replace the belt whats the best to get besides the gatorback? thanks

98TransAmAngryBird

Squeaky belts, pulleys, tensioners have all been a complete joke that Most guys can never seem to figure out. I have replaced my belt, tensioner pulley, both idler pulleys, and my car still squeaks... I don't know what to do... I have heard though that any autozone belt or aftermarket belt will continue to occasionally squeak.. My best advice to you if you think the "belt" is the problem, is to go to your local GM dealer and get a belt. It will be the OEM belt. A/C Delco I believe.

ssteven

iTrader: (6)

Get a gatorback belt. In the meantime. clean the belt and pullies scrub and scuff with a green scotchbrite sponge. Look for cracks in your belt also.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

I've been through the squeaky belt nightmare. First, 2 new belts. Then, clean and grease all 4 tensioner and idler pullies. Still squeaked when cold.

Last weekend I removed the alternator and greased the bearings as best I could. It's been very cold up here this past week (had snow this morning!), and so far 3 cold starts have been squeak-free.

98TransAmAngryBird

How did you go about greasing the bearings?? I guessing you had crack that bad boy open and all??

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I've found that the issue is sometimes a weak tensioner that seems to allow the belt to slip a bit over time. People tend to replace the pullies, but not the tensioner itself. I was having some belt squeak issues that new pullies and new belts didn't fix, but replacing the entire tensioner did the trick.

As for the belts, I've noticed that the stock GM belt is 2001mm, while some of the aftermarket belts sold for these engines are listed as 2005mm. 4mm should certainly be within the range that can be absorbed by the stock tensioner when it's working properly, but if the tensioner is getting weak then any extra slack isn't going to help matters.

nirvana94

went today to store and had them pull all the belts they had and for some reason they were all different lengths? anyway bought the dayco polrib which was the shortest and a good bit shorter than the one that was o my car put it on and now everything is perfectly quiet so maybe a word to the wise you might wanna make sure the belt ya get isnt to long. thanx for the advice