Craig Mack

A couple days ago I noticed my belt started squeeking at idle. It went away after I revved. But last night on the way home, I noticed it squeeked while I was in gear going about 40mph. I shifted it into fifth so the rpms dropped from 3000 to 1500 and the squeeking went away. I just checked under the hood and the belt has shredded off one of the ribs. I don't have the time to take it in right away, so how safe am I driving the car? If I avoid driving fast, will it last me? Please help.

PCGuRu2K

iTrader: (34)

Wow.. the belt shreaded already? How many miles did you have on it?

Craig Mack

I don't know....a few thousand at most.

Craig Mack

....

ejj

iTrader: (5)

I've been driving my car with a belt that's missing a rib for about 3k miles.

No problems.

HOWEVER, you must fix the reason it shreaded first, or it will keep getting worse.

Craig Mack

What could be the reason...

PCGuRu2K

iTrader: (34)

I know with my 2.87" I had one of the posts just chopped off to prevent the belt from shredding. I'll post a pic up later. Can you tell if it's rubbing on anything?

Craig Mack

At the left end the belt is frayed at the edges...on the right side there is a rib now showing...that's about the extent of my knowledge..

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Mis-alignment, poor tension, rubbing, etc.

You say "left" and "right" sides of the belt. Is that assuming you're looking down on the car from the front?

right = engine side
left = SC side

My problem was a lack of tension. I loosened the tensioner, re-lined up the belt, re-tensioned, and I've been problem free to this point.

Craig Mack

Yes.

I also got a burning smell when shifting out of first gear. Is it hard to check for poor tension? Any good directions I could follow to do so? Thanks for the help by the way...

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Get under the car. Take the plastic cover inside the passenger wheel right infront of the oil filter off.

Twist the belt.

If you can twist it more than 90*, then its too loose.

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

If you're getting the burning smell, check belt tension. And be careful. When I got the burnign smell from my belt, it snapped within a day.

Craig Mack

Yea. It's gotten to the point where I start the car and everytime I revv, it squeeks.

ejj: Can you please rephrase this:

take the plastic cover inside the passenger wheel right infront of the oil filter off.

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, that's not worded well.

- Jack up the car.
- Take off the passenger side front wheel
- You'll see a plastic splash guard behind the hub/suspension
- There are (IIRC) 4 bolts/screws that you need to remove to get that splash guard off
- After doing so you'll have access to the crank pully and belts.



The black plastic part to the right of the hub and behind it.

Craig Mack

EJJ,

Thanks for the better explination. Are the black bolts hard to find? Once I get to the tensioner, all I have to do is remove it, re-align the belt, then tighten the tensioner back on -- tighter? Can it be done with common tools? What does the tensioner look like?

My car squeeks when I revv it until the car warms up, then the squeeking goes away. However, this is when I start getting the nasty burning smell. It smells like a fried clutch.

Can I pop the hood, look at the belt, and tell if i'll be somewhat ok? I might need my car tommorow before I can fix anything, but I just don't know how bad of a perdiciment I'm actually in. The belt looks stable from a simple glance (minus one rib).

Hate being a boost newbie..

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Don't know what you mean by "black bolts".

You loosen the tensioner pully, make sure the belt is aligned with the ribs in the pullies correctly, and tighten the tensioner pully. This can be done with normal hand tools.

Get a Haynes manual, or search for the procedure for changing the belts on a stock Maxima. The tensioning procedure is the same even with the SC.

Squeeking when you start it would imply that you belt is loose, and that could be your problem. When you had the smaller pully installed, the belt may have been tensioned properly. However, belts loosed up after they "break in". This is what caught me off guard. I tightened my belt to the loose side of the spec when it was new. The belt broke in, and became way too loose.

The only thing you can tell from looking is if the belt is on all the ribs of the SC pully. If it is, that's a step towards ok. If its not (like, half the belt is hanging off the pully), you really need to get it taken care of before you snap the belt and leave yourself stranded.

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Black Bolts



Belt Tensioner
Loosen the Belt Tensioner, to give the belt some leeway..


Idler Pulley
Loosen the nut on the idler pulley, and push up on pulley to give the belt some slack. Reposition it, and tighten the tensioner and pulley.

Craig Mack

GTR_Rider <----

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Shouldnt you be at school?

Craig Mack

It's summertime buddy!

Craig Mack

Dear Lord....

I took off the wheel, unbolted the flap, and to my dismay the belt was almost ENTIRELY off the damn idler pulley! The pulley was soo loose that it practically fell apart in my hands. To top it off, the screw that the idler pulley goes in is loose as well, it seems like the entire assembly is loose. So now my idler pulley is off, and my belt is just dangling there. I'm having a hard time finding the belt tensioner too.

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Aren't you a senior?


The tensioner is from the top of the engine bay immediately next to the valve cover on the left, at least 2 inches away. Its the brass(gold) piece in the picture above. Thats a shame about your belt.

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

Sounds like whoever did your pulley swap forgot to tighten the idler pulley bolt after adjusting the belt tension. I bet you weren't making too much boost pressure.

Craig Mack

I am now...



I still can't find it. Is the compressor in the way? Do you have any other (or bigger) pictures or any other kind of explanation? (that's idiot proof)

StephenMax: That really does sound like the case. The idler pulley and everything on it was soo loose it practically fell out in my hand. Now i'm struggling to keep the belt somewhat in tact with all the pullies.

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

Yes, the compressor partially obscures the tensioner mechanism. If you're standing next to the passenger side wheel, the tensioner is going to be below and somewhat to the left of the blower. I've found that a swivel joint between your socket and extension is needed to tighten or loosen it.

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

I just went out to my car and had a look to be sure what I told you is correct. The tensioning mech. is actually almost directly underneath the blower pulley, just a little bit to the left.

I also noticed that my CAI pipe had come loose from the blower. No wonder the boosted run I did at lunch time today sounded so much better than usual.

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Sounds like a harder job then N/A since he has the blower there in the way. Im guessing he we pick up some boost pressure from this?

Craig Mack

Well, with the help of Turbo Tom we finally fixed the problem. The belt has shredded one rib so it's down to 5/6. The mounting plate for the blower is really designed poorly. He had to blow torch a peice off when he installed the kit just so he could fit a socket wrench down there to access the belt tensioner. I didn't have the huge extension he had to access it, so I would never of been able to fix it myself. So as of now everything runs fine, but we'll probubly throw another belt on soon just to be safe. I didn't notice any power gains though. My fuel pressure at idle is 40psi. With a super sard, I could get the FP down to run leener, which would give me lots of my low end power back. He suspects that if I get my car tuned ideally, I could be seeing as big of gains as I did when I swapped the 6:1 in for the 12:1 when I had the 3.33" pulley.

So, my cars back up and running, and no he didn't charge me. So for now i'm happy. Plans for the future will be lower the FP, and maybe do an inter/after cooler.

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Someone needs a swivel for his rachets

Y2KevSE

iTrader: (13)

Torch a piece off? Ummmmm......

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

Indeed. Craig, do you have the V1 or V2 kit? Not that it matters, because I've never heard of anyone having to do this to adjust belt tightness.

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Time for a new mechanic!

Craig Mack

I have the V1. Well, if anything he did a good job, you can't even notice....very good cut!

turbomax97

iTrader: (6)

cm, he doesnt sound very competent... a regular wrench would have fit from the wheel well....

Craig Mack

Well, my belt is squeeking again. No burning smell, just slight squeeking on coldish starts. Once I get into gear it usually goes away. What a pain in the @ss...

ejj

iTrader: (5)

Just tighten it a little.

Craig Mack