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Belt Squeal On Cold Mornings

fcruz3r
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fcruz3r Experienced

fcruz3r

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my car started developing this terrible belt squeal on cold starts. it's only happening for the past week since it got colder...but it goes away after bout 5 minutes.

had the serpentine and a/c belt replaced y'day but now the squeal is louder :D

the old belts looked brand new too with no signs of wear. wondering what else it could be??

pointless leaving it at the dealers coz it does not happen at any other time of the day only in the morning when the car has been garaged overnight.

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https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/327195-belt-squeal-on-cold-mornings/
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MSKYO Enthusiast

MSKYO

Posted
Posted

I had the same problem. I had both my belts replaced a few months back but they didn't tighten them enough. Now that it is cold, until the belts get a bit of heat they start slipping causing the squealing. I took mine back to the dealer who changed the belts and got them to tighten them, which they did for free.

fcruz3r Experienced

fcruz3r

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  • Author
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I had the same problem. I had both my belts replaced a few months back but they didn't tighten them enough. Now that it is cold, until the belts get a bit of heat they start slipping causing the squealing. I took mine back to the dealer who changed the belts and got them to tighten them, which they did for free.

did that get rid of the squeal?

fcruz3r Experienced

fcruz3r

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ps levels looks ok...i did do a top up about 10,000kms ago and it's remained at the same level since. could be the ps lube is getting on and thickening...dunno...maybe

i'm going to send the car to get the belts re-adjusted since I only replaced them yesterday...see if that helps.

Leev_35 Contributor

Leev_35

Posted
Posted

I have this issue as well.

Had the belt replaced about 2 months ago after a bolt from the bottom of the engine ha worked itself loose and was eating away at the old belt.

The new belt squeals for about 5 seconds on start up when its cold. Havent got arround to tightening it yet, there a a few tensioners for these belts by the looks of it!

pv35gt8 Collaborator

pv35gt8

Posted
Posted

Just a thought ( if your brave enough ) when the engine is running grab a piece of ordinary blackboard chalk and try to touch it onto the inside of the belt as it goes around.

Doesn't sound like much but is an old trick old mechanics used.

I have tried it before on older model cars including my old 31, seemed to do the job then.

Kam-80 Enthusiast

Kam-80

Posted
Posted

Have you tightened the belt tensioners? There are two of them. When it's cold the metal pulleys get smaller and expand when they get hot also if you've had new belts put on they loosen a bit once they break in, you'll need to tighten them once that happens. Note you should only need to tighten your belts up occasionally...if you're constantly tightening the belts then there might be some other issue.

Bourbon Boy Community Regular

Bourbon Boy

Posted
Posted (edited)

I used to own a Corolla with the same problem. I think the coldness dries out (or freezes) the belts. A bit of WD40 did the trick for me... I bit of a spray (DO NOT soak it) in each side of the belts where it connects to the pulleys.

Edited by Bourbon Boy
rb26stagea Grand Master

rb26stagea

Posted
Posted

had my first belt squeal last night, damnit! Hopefully it can be attributed to the fact that it was freezing, and raining: pretty sure the bonnet vents were letting water drip onto the belts: I was parked on a relatively steep hill...

V35_Paul Veteran

V35_Paul

Posted
Posted

I get a one second squeal from my A/c belt. I know because when i start the car in the morning and have the A/c on it's even longer.

But i also have light wieght under drive pulleys with new belts and when i got them thats when the squeaking started.

siu_loong_bao Rising Star

siu_loong_bao

Posted
Posted

ask rianto what he did...he got his belts changed at the dealer and they squeeled next day. he took it back and they adjusted the tension of the belts i think...

mine squeeled and were deteriorated so i got mine changed and the problem went away. so it really depends on how well of a job they did in changing your belts.

Ant Collaborator

Ant

Posted
Posted

Just had the belts done on mine - next cold morning they squealed for about 30s or so. Took back to dealer who did the belts, they re-adjusted the tension and now all good, squeal gone. Story from the dealer was that the belts expand a bit after installation so they very rarely get the tension right first time.

fcruz3r Experienced

fcruz3r

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sent it back to the mechanic to re-adjust the tension...so far I've got no more squealing so i guess my last belts only needed retensioning...went a bit overkill getting new belts but at least i dont have to worry about it again for a while.

oh and I got the similar story about the belts stretching and it being quite common that they need to re-adjust after a day or 2.

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