Serpentine Belt & Heater

JOHN24

MEMBER
FORD TAURUS

My car is Ford Taurus SE, Year:2000, 166,000 miles, and the 3.0L engine.
It’s in great condition, just bought it off my sister who had oil changes religiously and recently had some work done on it including tie rods, new brakes, tires and transmission servicing.
The other day I started to notice a bit of a chirping from the serpentine belt. It sometimes is noticeable only when idling and other times only when accelerating or at high speeds. Other times I don’t hear it at all.
I’ve checked the belt for any wear which there is none. It still looks new. There is only abit of condensation from the wet weather we've been having. The belt seems very tight and from what I see there are no pulleys out of alignment and the tensioner and pulley look to be in good working order.
Now I’ve read all about the tensioner and the pulley as well as different causes for this noise and I’m not sure what to do.

I have a 700 mile trip to take round trip and was hoping I could get this fixed when I get back. Any ideas? And can I drive like this? Sometimes I never hear the noise at all. And the car has no loss of power. However, today I was out for about a 15 minute trip and my heater won't work anymore. Just blows cold air. Could this be related?

Big Thanks!
John

1 Reply

TROMBONE GUY

MEMBER
4 POSTS

My taurus had no heat at all for all of last winter-I must have been crazy to do that. I put a new engine in earlier this year and when it was done I put in a water pump. The new water pump made the heat again, so that could be your issue. Another possibility is that the heater core may be blocked. You can check the heater core by disconnecting the 2 hoses from the fire wall that go to the hc. Run the engine with them off (yes, you will lose some coolant) and experiment a bit while paying close attention to the flow of the coolant. Unfortunately, if it is your heater core it will be pretty expensive to have fixed-near $700. This is because the hc is under the dash and needs to be serviced by a pro due to electrical issues, airbags etc. Hope to have helped!