Mine whines when I start the car sometimes and whines really bad when I start the car with the AC on, but will go away if I turn off the AC and cut it back on. I've tried spraying it with belt dressing but its not working. It seems kind of crap over there so I'm not sure how to get at it. Anyone have some helpful hints? thanks

 

www.motorvate.ca

 

are you suggesting that its the starter because I can't find anything talking about belts at the motorvate website. Also, the sound increases with engine rpms so I don't think its the starter.

 

Inspect the grooves on the inner side of the belt. If you see crack running perpendicular to the direction the belt spins, then it probably needs changing. I ran one with cracks for more than a year...and to think I had the new one in a box . Just no time to install.
If you see no cracks then your belt just needs tighting....even if there are cracks you can tighten it to stop the noise.

There is a tightening pulley that you can get to from above, near the wheel well. You will need a 14mm wrench to loosen the nut that holds the pulley...can be a bit tight. I'm not sure if you need a 12 or 14mm for the adjuster. After you loosen the pulley, tighten the adjuster about 1 complete turn, then retighten the pulley nut.Do not loosen the pulley too much before adjustment or you will have ah pain getting the pulley back in place...2-3 pulls should loosen the pulley enough for adjustment. Test the car. If the noise continues repeat the process until it goes away.

Right now I'm having another problem with that pulley actually. It's sounds like the bearing in it is going bad. When it starts to make noise I just spray some WD40 on it and it stops for a long while but I know I have to check it properly.

Hope that helps...if you're confused let me know.

 

thanks a lot, i will try this first thing tommorrow.

 

Sorry about that, I meant to link you to the alternator replacement section but I forgot that it doesnt show you how to replace the accessory belt just the idler belt. To answer your question so very simple and quickly. There is a second tensioner but its upside down so you would have to access this from underneathe the car, and loosen it to remove the accessory belt.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

I am trying to change the accessory belt to the alternator. I have looked at the manuals and read the posts. However, I can not figure out how to get the tensioner loosened. The whole assembly of the two pulleys and the belt just turn. Is there a trick to loosening the tensioner? Help!

 

What exactly are you trying to do? Sounds like you're trying to loosen the nut on the center of one of the other pulleys, not the tensioner...

 

Thanks! I did use the wrong terminology (I am actually the wife!), but your enlarged diagram helped 100%!

 

14mm wrench and ratchet. loosen the nut on the bolt that goes through the middle of the idler pulley then loosen the nut/bolt on top of it, slide it up and pull the belt off.