belt squeaking suddenly

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2001 Chevy Suburban 5.3 with about 291k miles.

Bought the truck used a while back so no idea when belt was last changed. Drove it earlier in the day, no noise... Got home, parked it, then two hours later went to go somewhere and the belt squeaks now.

What causes the belt to suddenly squeak? And it's not just a chirp, it's constant.

In my mind as the belt wears it would slowly make more noise. Not go from silent to super squeaky from one drive to the next??
 
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Pull the belt off, spin the pulleys by hand, inspect the belt, etc. At 291k miles, it could very well be practically any individual element on the entire belt system that's causing the problem.
 
I'd inspect the belt to see how worn (the ribs are, or evidence of excessive cracking or plies coming out), or just replace it now to reset the age to day 1.

Otherwise, maybe it's the belt or maybe a pulley. Pitzel nailed it, and if you can't find a fault with the belt or any pulley driven parts (or pulley bearing itself), then it is probably due to have the belt tensioner replaced. Frankly at that mileage I'd just plan on a new tensioner with a new belt, kill two birds with one stone since tensioners aren't expensive.
 
Pull the A/C belt and see if the noise disappears. It's common for Denso compressor pulley bearings to grenade and make a huge racket.
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Frankly at that mileage I'd just plan on a new tensioner with a new belt, kill two birds with one stone since tensioners aren't expensive.


OEM or a reputable brand from a reputable source, not eBay "People's Republic of Low Prices" junk. Please.... (burned twice this week already...)
 
did it somehow get moisture into the ribs of the belt?

sometimes that can be fixed but taking a simply wire brush to clean the rust/debris out of the ribs


is it a squeal vs a squeak?
 
Originally Posted by PowerSurge
Check the belt tensioner.


This!
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted by Kibitoshin
Pull the A/C belt and see if the noise disappears. It's common for Denso compressor pulley bearings to grenade and make a huge racket.

Ugh, I used the AC for the first time in a while today. It better not be that!! But I will check everything, thanks.

And no, no eBay junk... My truck only gets quality parts!
 
Does it have a single belt or more than one ?

I have DIY replaced the A/C clutch pulley on a GM , several years ago . A bearing is much cheaper than a compressor . Go down to AutoZone , O'Reilly , Advance Auto Parts & " rent " the tooling .

Still might be a good idea to check and replace as necessary , the belt & other components .

You have gotten a lot of good ideas / advice from the previous posts . Best of luck to you !
 
Just a personal experience... Water pump starts seeping enough to drip on the crank pulley/belt and starts the noise. Not always the case but did happen to my Chevy.
 
Finally investigated this today.

First, I took off the belt and started the engine. Completely silent, no squeak. Started checking stuff and the water pump is bad. The whole fan clutch/pulley/hub has a ton of play in it. Ran out of daylight changing the water pump so I'll finish it next week. Hopefully that's the only issue!

I do have a question... what's the best way to hold the water pump to remove the fan clutch? I have the fan clutch holding loaner tool from O'Reilly but I think I need to use a couple bolts and put them through the pulley. Or is there a better way? Thanks...
 
Does the holder tool have pins to key into the pulley to help hold it in place? The most common method of removing the fan clutch is to leave the belt on, get a big wrench onto the clutch nut and use a small sledgehammer to loosen the clutch off the WP. For this one it's righty loosey.

Change the water pump then install e-fans from a later model truck. Best mod I've done to my 02.
 
I have a broken breaker bar that I cut the head off of to make a extra long drift, Put it on the edge of the nut & give it a few smart blows with a hammer. These fan clutch nuts are Right Hand Thread....Lefty-Loosey.

I have the correct Pin Spanner/Holder & Wrench for these & only use it when Reusing the water pump, Far too much effort when you're replacing the pump!!
 
All good ideas but I ended up just using an m5 bolt and nut to hold the pulley to the holder and then use a big adjustable wrench to get off the clutch. Easy!

I decided to go for a new tensioner and thermostat since those attach to the new pump. I'm glad I test assembled it all on the counter at the parts store because the brand new Gates tensioner was defective. The casting was just off enough to hit the water pump. I thought it was the pump but the new tensioner doesn't fit on the old pump and the old tensioner fit the new pump perfectly.

Trying to decide whether to go for e-fans. If I want it PCM controlled I have to pay for a tune since 01 didn't come with that. Or I can use a controller. Any opinions? I did e-fan conversion on a 95 Chevy and it was wonderful.
 
Your PCM most likely doesn't support A/C head pressure vs Cooling Fan state! Sure you can have it tuned for the fans to operate via Coolant Temp, But A/C head pressure is a variable. A "Segment Swap" may be done IF your OS (Operating System) is shared with a '99-'02 4th Gen F-body.

You will also need a 3-wire Pressure Transducer, Transducer Connector, & Wire it to the PCM Connectors. The Discharge Line may not have the M10x1.25 port for the Transducer thus requiring a Discharge Line update on Denso Compressors & a Entire hose/manifold assembly update on Harrison/Delco compressors.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Your PCM most likely doesn't support A/C head pressure vs Cooling Fan state! Sure you can have it tuned for the fans to operate via Coolant Temp, But A/C head pressure is a variable. A "Segment Swap" may be done IF your OS (Operating System) is shared with a '99-'02 4th Gen F-body.

You will also need a 3-wire Pressure Transducer, Transducer Connector, & Wire it to the PCM Connectors. The Discharge Line may not have the M10x1.25 port for the Transducer thus requiring a Discharge Line update on Denso Compressors & a Entire hose/manifold assembly update on Harrison/Delco compressors.



Thank you! I will simply stick to the clutch fan.

Water pump installation went well, and no more noise!

Thank you for your help throughout this process.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Your PCM most likely doesn't support A/C head pressure vs Cooling Fan state! Sure you can have it tuned for the fans to operate via Coolant Temp, But A/C head pressure is a variable. A "Segment Swap" may be done IF your OS (Operating System) is shared with a '99-'02 4th Gen F-body.

You will also need a 3-wire Pressure Transducer, Transducer Connector, & Wire it to the PCM Connectors. The Discharge Line may not have the M10x1.25 port for the Transducer thus requiring a Discharge Line update on Denso Compressors & a Entire hose/manifold assembly update on Harrison/Delco compressors.



After putting it all together I really want e-fans.

Can I just piggy back off the AC clutch enable wire and turn one of the fans on then or would that not work?

And make the other one temp controlled?
 
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