Squeaking noise under hood

Hi and thanks for using 2CarPros.com. Based on your description, it sounds as if the belt may be dried or cracked causing the noise. A simple trick to determine if it is the belt is this. With the engine running, pour a small amount of water on the belt. If the sound changes or goes away, replace the belt. Here are general directions for replacement:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/replace-serpentine-belt

Here is a video, too:

https://youtu.be/l8hT2aSbhts

Here are the directions for removal and replacement specific to your vehicle:

The Poly-V serpentine drive belt is provided with a dynamic tensioner (Fig. 53) to maintain proper belt tension to drive the following components:
generator
power steering pump
air conditioning compressor
water pump
REMOVAL
Raise vehicle on hoist.



Fig. 52

Remove accessory drive belt splash shield (Fig. 52).
Warning: do not allow drive belt tension-er to snap back, as damage to tension-er and/or personal injury could result.

Release belt tension by rotating the tension-er clockwise (Fig. 53).
Remove drive belt.
INSTALLATION
Properly route and position belt onto all pulleys, except for the tensioner pulley (Fig. 53).
Rotate belt tensioner clockwise until belt can be installed onto the tensioner pulley (Fig. 53). Slowly release belt tensioner.
Verify belt is properly routed and engaged on all pulleys.
Install splash shield (Fig. 52) and lower vehicle.

I have attached pictures of the belt routing diagram as well as the splash pan that will need removal.

Once you have the belt off, check to make sure all components spin freely. However, since you mentioned that the belt tension-er pulley is off, that seems to be where the problem may be originating.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Joe

Yes, I went on YouTube and saw the water trick and it worked! It said the answer was a special belt with cross rib channels named gator-back! I know the belt is not more than a year old and I noticed it has the pattern as depicted in the YouTube video. So I bought a new after market pensioner and noticed the pulley is not flat all the way across the inner edge is a slight tapered undersized about a quarter inch wide. Wondering if this is intentional?

Still do not know why there is a misalignment!

In doing more research I discover that Chrysler built vehicles with bad belt alignment and there was a recall! It seems this problem exists for quite a few years. The 3.3 and 3.8 being the plentiful complaints. The problem is so huge gates made a special kit that replaces the two idlers and a new designed belt. Hey, it is only $140.00 for the 2000 and older and only $60.00 for 2001 and newer.

The new kit's use a two sided belt and grooved pulleys that forces the belt to track with them. It does work but because the actual issue is that the parts are not in alignment the belts wear faster. The "factory" repair is to use an alignment tool and "adjust" (IE:shim) parts to line up the OEM parts.
I have done both. The only advantage to the OEM method is you do not need a special belt to make it work.