Serpentine Belt "Chirps" when Driving

**CDsDontBurn** · 03-20-2013, 08:14 PM

My car in question is a 1997 Ford Thunderbird 4.6L v8.

Back Story:
For most of last year I was technically living in two places at the same time while I was working at PowerColor. I would stay with my aunt during the week and then go to my mother in law's to be with my daughter and fiancee for the weekend. Story behind that, but I'm not getting into that here. Anyways, the drive from PowerColor to my mother in laws was 2hrs / 110 miles long.

Over the summer, the serpentine belt decided to snap while driving to my mother in law's house and I had to pull over and left it overnight at a rest area until the following day when I replaced the belt. I thought everything was fine after replacing the belt, but I immediately noticed that there was a "chirping" noise once I installed the new belt which was not noticeable before with the old belt.

Troubleshooting already done

Removed the belt and reinstalled it thinking that I missed a groove / tooth when I installed the belt the first time
I have sprayed the crap out of idler and tensioner pulleys with WD-40 thinking it would be a bad pulley

What is most likely the cause of the chirping noise?

The tensioner or idler pulley?
An improperly installed belt even though I've already removed it and put it back on?
A miss-aligned pulley system?
Something else?

The videos below are ones I came across. The first video is one I came across yesterday and based on what it said, I hadn't even thought about it being misaligned pulleys! That makes me wonder if that could be the problem. But, I'm not sure why it would have happened with the new belt and not with the old belt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9qMtVVLXeY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSTZdTAB_As

**Joshua_Mahr** · 03-20-2013, 10:35 PM

Bad bearing most likely in the tensioner pulley. If not in one of the idlers maybe. Not sure how many it has.

**CDsDontBurn** · 03-20-2013, 10:54 PM

A bad bearing is what I was thinking originally, and that's why I was going to replace both the idler and tensioner pulleys. However, after watching those videos I listed below, it got me wondering if that was really the problem.

Here's a diagram of the pulleys. And a couple of pictures of the snapped belt when it happened.

CS = Crank Shaft
1 = Water Pump
2 = Power Steering Pump
3 = Tensioner Pulley
4 = AC Compressor
5 = Idler Pulley
6 = Alternator

**PP Mguire** · 03-20-2013, 11:37 PM

+1 to tensioner.

**CDsDontBurn** · 03-21-2013, 03:27 AM

According to the "Eric The Car Guy" video up top, if the idler or tensioner pulleys have any give side to side, then that pulley has to go. I went and tested this a few minutes ago, and the idler pulley has some give.

**PP Mguire** · 03-21-2013, 03:44 AM

Honestly, I would rent the pulley tools from Autozone (if you don't have them) and replace the idler and tension pulleys together.

**CDsDontBurn** · 03-21-2013, 03:49 AM

Already bought both pulleys

. Hopefully that's all that needs replacing for this.

So much more stuff needs to go into this car. I was looking under the hood and a lot of the vacuum hoses need to be replaced. A lot of them are even building up grease around the openings, so those are going next. I'll probably do spark plugs as well when I replace those.

I also need to clean out the MAF sensor as well.

Ugh, so much work needs to be done on this car and it's not cheap to get these parts. Parts for my Accord are cheaper!