Squeaky fan belt or A/C problem?

[loonmobile]

With all the hot weather in the Northeast I noticed that when i turn on my a/c I hear a little squeek. It seems to be a little more pronounced when I put the car in drive. I just brought my Camry to my mechanic to try to fix an interior leak from (we think) a loose evaporator hose or clog, when I remembered about the squeak. My mechanic doesn't know if it's the belt or some rust on what looks like the pully. (He said it was the condenser) My mechanic said he would spray it to see if that cleared it up. He's prepared to change the belt if necessary but said it didn't look bad. I told him that I would write the good folks on Toyota Nation to see if they had any ideas.

Thanks in advance.

[71Corolla]

Just replace the belt with a quality unit (the Bando one I got with my timing belt kit has been fine), or better yet get one from the dealer if you don't mind paying through the nose. You can easily do it yourself it's a simple job. I would not put any spray on products on the belt they do more harm than good in the long run. The pulleys should also be cleaned to remove all traces of grease etc. before you put on the new belt.

When you say there is rust on the pulley, where on the pulley?

[loonmobile]

I'm not exactly sure where the rust is. I couldn't even see it when he pointed it out to me.

I just got a call from my mechanic. He said that he tightened the belt and there is no squeak now. Perhaps I should just go with that? Our 2001 Camry LE has just over 50K on it. I don't know how long a/c belts are supposed to last. We are taking a road trip on Sunday and I want it right -- no cutting corners. If the squeak is gone, it should be OK?

Thanks, 71Corolla, for your advice!

[71Corolla]

Make sure the mechanic didn't tighten the belt excessively just to make the squeak go away. The comment he made about rust is a red flag to me, rust can't form on the active surface unless the car has been sitting for a period of time.

I replace the drive belts every timing belt change, which is 60,000 miles, so you're getting close to that. But I've seen the original belts last much longer. When I got my Gen3 it had original belts with 109,000 miles, the alternator belt was still working fine but the power steering belt was slipping and spitting its guts all over the inside of the hood.