Serpentine belt/tensioner

BOSTONBOATSWAIN

MEMBER
2008 CHEVROLET COBALT
2.4L
4 CYL
FWD
100,000 MILES

Old serpentine belt gone (found it in the road). Got a new one, put it in & got loud squealing sound. Pulled out tensioner pulley, could hear bearing loose in wheel Changed wheel out, put back in started it up & got slight squeal. Sprayed belt dressing. No help. When fan came on squeal got real loud. Maybe should have changed out whole pulley tensioner assembly instead of just wheel? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

4 Replies

LOU P

MECHANIC
118 POSTS

Hello, the first thing I do to check for a pulley noise is to take the belt off and see what pulleys you can wiggle. If they can be wiggles that indicates the bearing has play. Usually squealing is caused by slipping of the belt. So belt dressing is not something we usually recommend. You most likely have a misaligned pulley. You can use a piece of hose near your ear and poke it around the belt area when running to see where the noise is the loudest to narrow it down. Hope this helps. Lou.

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Sunday, March 20th, 2016 AT 8:04 PM

BOSTONBOATSWAIN

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45 POSTS

Other guy told me to change out tensioner. Already have tensioner & belt. Can I check alignment with them off & how? Thanks for any info

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Monday, March 21st, 2016 AT 11:16 AM

BOSTONBOATSWAIN

MEMBER
45 POSTS

That's tensioner & belt already off car.

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Monday, March 21st, 2016 AT 11:16 AM

LOU P

MECHANIC
118 POSTS

Best way to check alignment is to stand over the engine and kinda eyeball the pulleys, sometimes it's not as easy but you may want to install the belt and then run the engine and watch each pulley and if it makes a noise (the belt) usually you can time the movement of a pulley with the belt noise.

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Monday, March 21st, 2016 AT 12:12 PM