Ok guys, so I've about had it with my serpentine belt. I have a 2000 chevy blazer 4x4, 4dr, with air conditioner. I've replaced my idler pulley, tensioner pulley, and alternator. (All of which were bad and needed to be replaced, car has 230k miles). After changing my alternator, the noise was gone for about a day, (maybe an hour or so of actual driving time split in two 30 minute intervals). It came back towards the end of my 25 minute commute back to my house.

Conditions:
If I put a different belt on (new or old) it is gone but comes back after 10 minutes or less of driving. It sounds different in park, drive (moving and idle), and reverse ( all this was noticed in the cold and still somewhat of a cold engine, only drove about 5-10 minutes). Before my alternator replacement, I replaced it with a new belt and within a couple weeks it already has some lines on the flat surface. Haven't replaced belt yet after alternator was replaced. I tried a tiny bit of belt conditioner and it made the squeal 10x worse (hot engine).

I'm considering changing the tensioner arm itself this time thinking it's gotten weak after so many years. But I'm in college and don't really have the funds to keep throwing money at it without fixing it so if anyone has any ideas please let me know!

 

look for the one for your truck, guarenteed to work

 

Baby Powder on the belt has worked for me in the past. Just a bandaid though.

 

I 2nd the Gatorback belt. My 89 Jimmy would squeak no matter what until I tried the Goodyear Gatorback Belt. The squeak has not returned.

 

I would look at the water pump pulley and make sure it is clean. I do not think you should have any squealing from the ribbed side of the belt. As long as there is a reasonable amount of tension there should not be enough slipping to create a noise. The reverse side however which runs on the idler, tensioner and water pump pulley are a different story. As long as the pullleys are clean and spin freely/quietly with the belt removed you should not have a problem.
Just so long as you are not confusing the noise with a bad bearing.

 

With the truck running put baby powder on the ribbed side of the belt BE CAREFUL! if the squeeling stops its the belt

 

This link helps when diagnosing belt noise: Diagnosing Misalignment and Belt Noise If you get pulley alignment to 1 degree or less, you can use the cheapest piece of junk belt you can find, and it will be silent.

 

I'll check that link out today captain hook. And as far as the water pump pulley, that's the one that I haven't tried. I had a water pump leak back in may and replaced it but don't remember much about the pulley. So I'll definitely check that out. But if it was a bearing, would the belt conditioner make the noise worse? It shouldn't affect the bearing if the conditioner is just on the belt, right? Not trying to argue, just learning.

 

Correct Alex

 

Ok, so I read that article and I'll check the alignment of the water pump pulley. There is a possibility that it's misaligned because I was in a hurry to get it fixed and may not have torqued something right or put it in wrong. I'm also going to check my idler pulley and make sure the spacer is on the right side. Thinking it's one of the two o them since the noise got worse when belt conditioner was applied to smooth side. After that, I'll change tensioner arm, then gatorback. And if it still makes noise after that, I'll invest in a good speaker system.