Hey everyone,
I just bought a Tiburon about a month ago. I'm away at college, so my parents picked it up for me since I'm 4 or so hours away. Since they got it, I've talked to them and they said they had the belts and hoses replaced at our local mechanic. Since the new belts had been in, it started squeaking maybe a week after they were replaced. They took it back in, and whatever was wrong was claimed to be fixed. I had come home for Thanksgiving break and it was fine, but couldn't drive it back with me because the hood latch broke. Well I talked to them again, and they said once again the belt is making noise, and they took it back in yet again. I'm sure that it's not just our mechanic trying to screw us, because both times we've had to take it back in, there was no charge. It's getting pretty cold in Indiana here now, we've had snow and all, could this be part of the problem? Is it something to worry about? Thanks,

~Chainu

 

Check the tension on the belts to make sure they don't feel lose.

In all honesty, all you probably have to do is put a little oil on them.

 

do not put oil on belts, this way they could slipping.

 

A few drops of oil aren't going to throw the belt off Dimi. tongue.gif And thats what I mean, a few drops, don't put an entire can on there.

Some people say that "oiling" belts reduces their life by making them swell or crack. Personally I've had no problems and I've done this several times before.

Some other people "wax" belts, and I believe they also make special stuff especially for squeaking belts, if your that paranoid about it.

 

yeah they make belt dressing, you can get it at autozone.

 

I would just play with the tension some. It's a fine line between squeaky and too tight. Since it's new belts, they may have stretched, especially if you went with cheap ones. I installed a new alternator belt last week, a Dayco Poly-Cog which is supposed to be a lot quiter than the standard belts, and have had to tighten it once already. But just slightly, and I haven't had any squeaking. Cold weather can affect it. Does the noise stop once the car is warmed up?

I wouldn't put anything on belts. Not dressing, soap or oil. Another possibility is a worn tensioner and/or pulleys. Once you get a belt slipping a lot, it glazes those items, and applying the aformentioned products only makes it worse. The fix for that is to clean the pulleys, and carefully sand them with a fine grit to remove the glazing. Lubing the belt is only a temp fix, and it's not even a fix: the belt is still slipping, you just don't hear it. But it will come back louder than ever pretty quickly. I know because I recently went through this.

ID10T warning: don't try to clean or sand pulleys with the engine running.

 

my cavilier had this problem before i sold it. but seemed to only happen when the altenator needed to work harder. seems the belt was actual too small. got a new belt but also ended up puttin on a new altenator for free because mechanic took blame for putting other one on.

 

That reminds me of another possible cause: a bad bearing. It can catch or just be rough and then your belt will slip, causing squeaking. You can check your alternator and PSP easily enough, and those are probably the main culprits.