I have a squeak I don't understand. I thought I had a squeak on my idler for the PS/AC belt, but I replaced it with one from Malloy Mazda and it hasn't gone away. I know it is on this belt because I can remove it and it goes away.

I have eliminated the AC because it happens if the AC is spinning or not (I can visually verify this.

Does the PS pump have bearings that aren't lubricated by the PS fluid? Do these get squeaky?

 

Have you tried tightening the belt? A loose belt can result in a squeak. You can tighten the bolt during idle to see if the squeak goes away.

 

You replaced the idler, if I am reading correctly. How old is the belt? Why wasn't that replaced first?


You really didn't need to buy a new idler. It's very easy to re-grease.

 

The idler pulley can go on one of two ways. Flip it around backward and see if that helps. I was cursed with squeaking for ages, flipped it and fixed it.

There is a lip on the idler pulley, mine was originally towards the back of the car, flipped it so the lip is towards the front, done.

Basically the idler pulley is spaced a little funny and it puts a slight load on the belt which creates the squeaking.

Dale

 

Interesting. Maybe I should try a new belt. I tried flipping the idler around, but it didn't seen to fix the squeak. When I drove the car for a longer period of time the squeak seemed to get better and
worse intermittently.

I initially thought that the belt was too tight and loosened, which certainly did not fix the problem. I would be nervous to tighten more than I had previously.

My idler looked like it had a sealed bearing, so I didn't think if re-greasing.

 

With the engine "OFF" rub a slight amount of bar soap (ivory or what ever) on one or two areas of both sides of the belt. Start the engine, if the belt quites down, replace it after you clean the pullys.

 

Take the PS pulley off and wire brush it. Corrosion and other debris get into the grooves and cause the squeeking. Make sure to clean to bright metal. That was my problem. Took me a month to figure that one out.

 

Great, I will try both the brush and soap when I get home. My PS wheel is quite corroded.

These are great suggestions and I never would have guessed since it sounds so much like a dry bearing. Hopefully these work and I can entirely focus on figuring out why I don't have boost above 4500 RPM.

 

Tried this, fried my belt and maybe the new idler pulley, guess it only works on some cars.