How much are you paying now?

 

I'm clueless as to what you could be doing wrong if it spins in your hand. If you put the washer back on there that I think it has. It's a shoulder bolt so you can't overtighten it. Well, you could strip it. But not to the point where it will affect the spin. Does the washer have a cup to it? I'm trying to remember, but thinking it might and maybe you have the cup facing the wrong way and it's pinching the pulley.
Only thing I can think of.

 

the pulley has two cups starting from the front, there is the bolt with the plate on it sitting flush with the pulley, and on the backside there is another plate... which way do the plates go... i dont think i have them on backwards

 

That should be it. I don't think you can put those plates on backwards. THey are basically just washers.

 

Why replace it with another T50, once you get it out take it to a hardware store & get you a grade 8 bolt in the right length & thread pitch, screw the T50 bolt. I hate those damn things.

I'm gonna have to repack all mine this weekend thankx to the crazy amoutn of rain recently mine are squealing like crazy. I guess at 160k miles its about time anyhow, LOL.

 

ok i replaced it and put it on correct.....gues what still squeek. the compressor dosents squeek when i turn it by hand but it has no freon.the squeek is exactly the same wether the switch for the ac and blower are on or off....is this the tensioner or the compressor? what is the best course of action, to charge it up with freon and then see if the squeek goes away or, change the tensioner assembly.... btw this is from the ac serpentine system because as soon as i take the belt of the squeek goes away and its a new belt

 

I'd say its the A/C idler pulley, there is a tensioner & idler puley for the A/C belt & another set for the main Serpentine belt. If you have time you might just pull the ones off you havent replaced & re-pack them all with fresh grease.

 

If you don't have freon, then the compressor won't turn on. SO it's not the compressor. It's got to be the tensioner if that's not the one you just greased. If it's going away when you remove belt and compressor has no freon, then compressor won't turn on anyway. SO it's got to be a tensioner or pulley.

So what did you have installed incorrectly?

 

your the man you hit the nail on the head... i was thninking about it and was like man im stupid it has to be the tensioner lol.. now how do i add the r134a to the system?

 

the rear dust cover was rubbing the pulley when i torqued the bolt down... i just took that cover off .. i think it got bent or something now the pulley spins free ...tensioner replacment tonight.. wil update

 

Cool. Keep us posted

 

replaced the tensioner..... the squeek is gone...put r134a in the system the compressor kicked on.... the system got cool not cold ... then i drove around the block getting the rpms high and the ac got colder

 

Did you just add a can? or evac system and fill etc. with the actual evac system machine?
Glad the squeek is gone.

 

My personal experience (I hope this helps):

Common squeak/squeal in engine bay. First i diagnosed where it was coming from, i guess there are many ways to do this, i took a water bottle and made sure it was spraying as a fine stream and sprayed around until i found where the problem was. Once the water hit the problem area, the squeal temporarily stopped (5-10 seconds). I narrowed it down to (in my case) the ac idler pulley. I took it off, cleaned it, repacked it with lithium grease, and it went away more or less. Problem solved.

The squeal came back. So i did the same thing and found it to be in the same area. Fool me once shame on you, twice shame on me. Wanted to make sure to do it right this time and took the 2 or 3 pulleys off, along with the bearing shields and cleaned everything, thoroughly! This includes the mounting location too, everything coming into contact. I made sure this time to remove all the old grease (the little that was left) and all dirt or grime. Re-packed all of the pulley bearings, put grease on the mounting locations and everything. Probably took about 5 or 10 minutes more than my previous time (most of the time is just taking the belts off and putting them back on). I also had my sample of fluid film so i sprayed a little bit in the area's after i had put it all back together (probably worthless). Then drove it, wiped down the excess that had flung onto the bottom of the hood and other places. This has taken care of all the squeaks, squeals, and buzzing/spinning sounds. I have driven with water on the road and puddles many times (this was during winter) since then and it has not come back like it did the first time. Lessoned learned.

 

I fixed this problem on my car today.

The T-50 bolt on the AC idler was so tight that I knew that it would "round out" if I just kept pulling. This bolt sticks through the mounting bracket about 3/8", so I fired up the torch, and got the tip of the bolt red-hot. It still took a pretty good tug, but finally gave up, and screwed right out.

I know that I wouldn't have gotten this out without the heat. Hopefully, this will save someone else a little grief.

 

BTW: to loosen the T50 bolt:
- hold a steel punch-like object (e.g. a 3/8" extension bar) to the bolt head,
- give it a sharp blow with a hammer (a sharp blow, not a heavy blow),
- the bolt will now come loose using a high quality T50 bit on end of a breaker bar.

 

Thank you for the post, Ive read about this but these pictures really made it easy.

Took me under a hour to do this and saved me 55$ from local parts store.

 

And that $55 pulley from Autozone started squeaking about a year, 7-8k miles after I put it in. Wish I had read about this thread earlier, as I regreased that replacement pulley, the bearings were pretty damn dry.

 

Older thread but great info, at least seems to be, give it a shot next weekend.

After changing the serpentine belt today started getting an annoying squeaking. The good news is the engine seems not to be shimming around as much.