Noisy serpentine belt - need help

[georgehgil]

I just bought a 2000 corolla (automatic with AC) which I will be using mainly as a commuter. I noticed it had a noise coming from the belt area when I bought it but figured it would be an easy fix. Below is a sequence of events in order of actions which I performed to try and rid the noise.

First, I sprayed belt conditioner on it but it did not make the noise go away permanently (made an ugly mess though)

Second, I sprayed brake cleaner on the pulleys and belt, but noise only went away for a short time (15 minutes) and returned

Third, I replaced the serpentine belt and the noise went away for a couple of days and noise returned again.

Fourth, I replaced the tensioner pulley, but the noise did not go away at all.

I am thinking it has to do with the belt itself cause if I spray WD40, the noise goes away immidiately but only temporarely. Also, when the car is cold, the noise is loudest. When I have been driving for a while, the noise goes away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[swatson9]

So what course of action did you take? I am having a similar noise on the passenger side on my 04.

[pdq]

What is the condition of the serpentine belt? Any cracked ribs?

The belt is easily removed and replaced with a serpentine tool (you can rent from Autozone) in about 10 minutes. I bought a Dayco brand belt there for my dad's Mazda Protege, and it was much higher quality than the OEM belt, with special ribs that grip the pulleys much better.

[gbell210]

When you say you replaced he tensioner pulley, does this mean you also replaced the little shock which actually applies the tension? That was my issue, i bought the whole shock and tension arm with pulley. I didn't have a wrench to remove the arm and pulley, so I just swapped the shock (I also didn't want to break the bolt like others have done). Rattleing noise has stayed away.

You could remove the belt totally and start the car for a minute to see if the sound is still there. Running without the belt won't hurt if its not very long.

[fishexpo101]

Since the noise did go away temporarily when you sprayed it with a solvent, most likely it is belt / pulley contamination. Unfortunately, it is likely that all the stuff that you spray on there made the initial problem worse.

Have to start from a cheat sheet - remove the belt, clean off all the pulleys with appropriate solvent. Brake cleaner will work well for the metal ones, use something slightly more rubber/plastic friendly on the idler pulley and the belt tensioner pulley (like alcohol, Simple Green, 409, etc.). Once those are all clean, spin each pulley by hand if possible. You want to make sure that they turn free and do not have any in/out or up.down shaft play. If they do, that will be something you want to address first, or the noise will not go away. Check the condition of the belt, top and bottom, if it looks OK, you can reuse it after cleaning it off first. Otherwise, it would be best to just replace it - stick with a good name brand and you shouldn't have any problems.

[georgehgil]

I replaced the belt, which had the spray solvent, and the noise went away for a couple of days. The new belt had no solvent sprayed on it.

As for replacing the pully, I only replaced the round wheel, not the entire assembly.

I still have the noise coming from that area. I am going to buy a higher quality belt that grips the pulley better, as "pdq" suggested. Hopefully this will make noise go away.

I will keep everyone informed.

Thank you all for your input.

[pdq]

As fish said, you should also check your pulleys and tensioner. ETCG just made a great video on drive belt inspection:

You Tube

You Tube