Belt Chirp - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Exage · 04-28-2010, 05:50 PM

Hey TN. I know it's been a while since I posted here; lost my job, finding a career ect...

Well it's been a year since I bought the car. When I first picked it up there was a small serpentine belt chirp when the weather was rainy. The problem has gotten worse. When the car is running there is now a noticable constant chirp almost a squeal from the serpentine belt area no matter if the weather is sunny or rainy.

I decided to take a look at it today *2ZZ-GE 92,950KM*. Here is what I found:

I tested how taught the belt was on the longest length ie alternator to power steering pump. There seemed to be about an inch of play.

The belt itself doesn't have any cracks on either side of the belt, however I think it might be glased on the smooth (non ribbed) side, because it felt a little to smooth.

Like I mentioned before when the engine is running (any RPM) the belt makes a chirping noise constantly. However if I pour a little bit of water on the smooth side of the belt it dissapears (gone) for about 30 seconds then returned back to normal chirping (no difference).

As a result I think the belt and some of the pulleys might be glazed on the smooth side.

My thoughts are that I'm going to need a new serpentine belt (duh!), rough up the pulleys, and perhaps a new belt tensioner aswel if the belt is getting glazed. Should I rough the pulleys a little with the old belt still on to make sure I'm on the right track?

Your thoughts?

Pishtosh · 04-28-2010, 08:16 PM

The pretty standard answer around here is a Goodyear Gatorback belt. I know it solved my persistent noise problem. You can get it most places and installation is cheap.

v8eaterWRX · 04-29-2010, 02:18 PM

Lots have had good luck with the gatorback belt as mentioned above. I just bought a $15 belt from Checker and did it myself on our 06. Takes like 10 minutes if you follow the instructions in the sticky. I found it easier to get it over the rearward most pulley first and work my way around the bottom pulleys up to the alternator.

Good luck!

Exage · 04-29-2010, 04:41 PM

Thanks guys, I'm looking into that belt. Seems like the chirp is actually not bad at 1000rpm warm idle. But when it's cold idle or you give it any sort of gas it chirps much more loudly.

03corollaguy · 04-11-2011, 08:38 PM

quick question...got this same chirping everyone was talking about...if i pick up the gator belt, what's a place i could take it to and have them install for not too much $? as everyone knows, the Toyota dealership is a ridiculous scam...would Sears put in the belt that i bought elsewhere? thanks!

Yuko · 04-11-2011, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 03corollaguy

quick question...got this same chirping everyone was talking about...if i pick up the gator belt, what's a place i could take it to and have them install for not too much $? as everyone knows, the Toyota dealership is a ridiculous scam...would Sears put in the belt that i bought elsewhere? thanks!

Most shops can install the belt for you. Pepboys, Firestone, or maybe the local highschool Auto Tech. May cost around $40, about 1/2 hr labor. Most of the time, they want to install their parts. It shouldn't be a problem with a drive belt. As for the noise, some say you can run a piece of crayon on the belt as it's running to stop the chipping but be careful.

kmorgan_260 · 04-23-2011, 08:37 PM

I had the same problem with my 2005 Corolla and when I replaced the belt it didn't help. Turns out the tensioner pully had a bad bearing so when I replaced that the noise was gone.