Squeaking Drive belt?

[Derick Cardenas]

My 2001 ST upon start, has a squeaking sound. it seems as though it comes from the drive belt. about 6 months ago i replaced it with a new one. i also replaced the idler bearing and pulley.



strange thing is, the drive belt should last long...i think 100k kilometer or 50k i think...i estimate it only ran for about 5k and the squeak began.



any ideas?

 

[roger Biddlecombe]

Had same problem, try more tension,or you may need another belt if it has got a sheen to it by being to loose

 

[Derick Cardenas]

i'll look under the hood tomorrow

 

[TomT]

They sell stuff called Belt Dressing at the auto parts places. Helps keep belt from slipping. Works good.

 

[Casey B]

I had the same problem recently. I put a new belt on and it came back a month later. I don't think belt dressing is recommended for serpentine belts. It made my squeak turn into a violent squeal. Anyway, the dealer replaced the idler pulley and the water pump pulley, according to them. They also put a new motorcraft belt on and I haven't heard a peep from it since.







KC

 

[Bill Ellis]

Ford tensioners seem to wear out before getting to 100K miles. They are not expensive and a loose tensioer spring can cause the belt to squeak.

 

[Evan F]

It might be the crankshaft syncronizer and sensor. Takes about an hr to replace if the sound seems like its coming right from the front of the crank..

 

[Scott Tanner]

I'm 100% positive that you need to buy a motorcraft or dayco belt. The ones made by gates have the wrong prifile for fords. I had the same problem w/ my 90 aerostar, belts would last 8000 mi.. started using the correct ones, and wa-la--- 30000 miles...

 

[Todd Z]

this is a common issue, You want to know why??...



Ford put a belt that is too long on the ST.... IT actually slips at higher speeds, because the tensioner when you rev the engine, takes up the slack, but is not strong enough to keep the belt tight....... This is why I was loosing my power steering over 5k rpms...

It took a while, i was going to make a special bracket and stuff, I simply stuck a smaller belt on and the problem went away....



If you can find a belt that is a 1/2 inch to 1 inch smaller and install that, It will take care of the belt noise forever..

Todd Z

 

[Derick Cardenas]

todd, i think you're right....let me do a coanvass on available drive belts here and their sizes