Sick C5

Before I get crap from the regulars saying use the "search feature, this have been covered... Yadda yadda yadda". I did search and couldn't find the info I needed.

My car was making this annoying squeak/cricket chirp quite often after cold starts during the winter. After driving for 10 minutes or so it would go away. Well, now it's permanent. As soon as I start my car the squeak begins and only gets louder as the RPMs increase. I have turned the AC off and on to see if the noise is dependent on that, it is not.

Does this sound like it is the drive belt tensioner? I pulled it off earlier and noticed slight side to side play in the pulley.

Also, who on here offers the best prices on these things?


Thanks,
JR

bburn

I suppose it could be any of the components, but I would seriously consider the belt if I were you. I just went through this a month ago on my 2001 but I ignored the belt suggestions when I ran across them while researching. I replaced idler and tensioner pulleys because the bearings all sounded like junk when I took them off the car and spun them by hand next to my ear. Unfortunately, none of those bearings were the culprit. I knew it was somewhere on the AC belt because the noise went away when that belt was off the car. Even though the belt looked fine, I replaced it. Voila, problem solved. Upon closer inspection, the old belt's micro V shapes were all worn down and more rounded or square than the new belt's were.

Could have saved myself a lot of trouble by just replacing a simple belt. I'm glad I have new pulleys since the bearings sounded pretty noisy, but it was additional trouble and expense that may not have been absolutely necessary. This all happened to me at about 80k miles. If you are in the same neighborhood of age and mileage, I would seriously consider a belt being the cause. If that's not it, then you got a new belt for $20 which is no big deal.

LoneStarFRC

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...n-the-a-m.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...squeaking.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-me-crazy.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...ueak-cure.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...t-squeeks.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...lt-squeak.html

There's plenty more

Old Horsepower

Like bburn said. Had same thing. Put on new Gatorbacks and quiet ever since.

sonny557

Had the same scenario, installed new pulleys and belts, sounds quiet now.

Rocket1999

Old horsepower, where did you get the gatorback belts from? I've not been able to locate.

YELLO C5

Bought mine from Amazon.com.

Old Horsepower

I don't know what stores have them now. But I see you can order them from Summit Racing online. I think the A/C belt is the same on all years but the main belt is not. For 97, 98, 02, 03, 04 part number is 4060802 which is 80.25 inches. For 99, 00, 01 part number is 4060798 which is 79.875 inches. Not interchangeable. Hope that helped. Great belts and silent.

kalayaan12

Had the same noise - tried everything:

- Per an alternator shop (I thought the noise was a rusted alternator bearing since my car has been doing alot of sitting around alot due to deployments) a drop or two of olive oil on the belt would clear up the noise. Amazingly, this actally worked for a good number of years!

- The noise came back more frequently. A drop of olive oil helped, but wore off quickly. I lightly sanded the main drive belt to remove any glaze and re-installed. This didn't do crap, so I bought a GM Delco belt for the main drive.

- Noise got progressively worse. I followed one of the TSB's posted somewhere to replace the idler pulley. It was late on a Friday afternoon, had to drive all over the place to find a Dealership that had one - installed it and NO DIFFERENCE! What a waste of $50...

- Next route (per a post I read someplace here) was to remove old belts, clean the heck out of all the pulleys and belts with Bra-Kleen, and add a dab of silicone grease on both sides of the belts. This worked, but only briefly...

- The noise just kept getting worse. I installed a new Delco belt on the A/C drive. Didn't help!

- My next step WAS going to be to replace the power steering pump, as the chirping SEEMED to be originating in that vicinity and I noticed a very, very slight side-to-side amount of "freeplay" in the p/s shaft by wiggling it. Thank God I didn't...

- I finally re-cleaned all the crap off of everything (olive oil, silicone grease, who-knows-what-else) and put a Gatorback belt on the main drive which I ordered from Summit. YESSSSSSS !!! That fixed it


Jeff

WKMCD

I put a Katech tensioner with an aluminum pulley on mine. Problem solved.

(And it looks pimp)

Jumper11

Whats the approximate miles that I should be looking at replacing the belts?

Old Horsepower

I'm no expert on this but I would say at about 50k miles. They might still look good but when you reach in and twist the belt so you can see the underside you might see little missing pieces and small cracks. Then the squeeks and chirps start.

C5Natie

Man, some people spend more time trying to prove someone wrong about using the search feature vs just helping with a useful answer. Why does it bother anyone if somethings been asked before? Dont read the thread then! Lol.

lionelhutz

Checking the belt condition is a good first step. Remove each belt and run with the only one to determine which drive is causing the chirp. A stephoscope so you can listen to each idler pulley really helps. Also, don't buy cheap replacment pulleys.

Overall, you won't get any absolutes on this issue. I don't have a Gatorback belt and no chirping. I found a bad new cheap pulley with the stephoscope and a more expensive new pulley fixed my chirp. Mine was the AC drive, FYI.


So, everyone should just ignore all the useful information in the previous threads? What happens when a previous thread just happens to have the EXACT info the poster needs? This search/not search bickering goes both ways....

C5Natie

^^
What I meant was there is no need for sarcasm. Ive been directed to existing threads before in a nice way. The guy said he tried searching too. I was just laughing that someone took the time just to be sarcastic because I had just seen a similar response to a newbie in another section. Was a humorous comment in a way, hence the "Lol".

LoneStarFRC

Precisely.......