Hey guys. I've been dealing with this issue on my truck since I bought it about a year and a half ago. It is a 1998 chevy 1500, 4.3 vortech v6 with 135,000 miles.

Ever since I purchased the truck I have had to replace the belt on it about once a month,otherwise it squeals like crazy. It seems like no matter what parts I replace,it ends up making noise again,and it is embarassing when I pull up to a potentially new customers house making all of that racket.

Here are the parts that have been replaced on the advice of mechanics at a local shop. NEW ALTERNATOR,NEW TENSIONER,IDLER PULLEY,AND BELTS OUT THE YING YANG.

After replacing the belt 3 or 4 times I got advice from "mechanics" at a local shop. After listening to the motor they suggested that I replace the alternator ($165),so I did. That didn't fix the problem,but I kept the new alternator on anyway. Then they told me to replace the tensioner (approx. $40) After several high dollar Napa belts,and dayco belts,the problem still kept coming back every 3-4 weeks. Now another mechanic requested that I replace the idler pulley,and put a new belt on it. So I did the other day. Guess what??? It now squeels like hell. Usually I have to wait a few weeks to hear it squeal but it did it immediately this time. If I rev the motor up to about 4,000 rpms while in park it will go away for a couple of minutes,and sometimes when I hit 3rd gear it will stop briefly. But it keeps coming back. I have also pulled the fuse for the a/c to prevent the ac clutch from kicking on,that doesn't fix it either. I'm wondering if there is some notorious problem with belts squealing on this engine. Any help will be appreciated. I've been dealing with this for over a year and a half,and I've just about reached the end of my ropes with this truck. Thanks in advance.

P.S. When I replaced the belts with new ones,the old belts looked fine. No messed up grooves or anything. The only thing I saw different was that the belt (top side,not the grooved side) seemed slick and shiny. I thought the idler pulley might be to blame because it touches the top of the pulley,and there were also grooves in the idler pulley that shouldn't be there. BUT THE NEW IDLER PULLEY DIDN'T FIX THE PROBLEM. All of the pulleys look nice and tight with no play in them.

 

I would remove the belt and make sure everything spins like it should. The only thing that rides off the shiney side besides the idler is the water pump. Pull the belt and make sure the water pump pulley spins freely and doesn't have any side to side movement (bad bearing) in it. Let me know what you find.

 

We had a problem like this on a cadillac. We kept replacing the belts and pulleys. We finally figured it out it was the new pulleys they were giving us were not spaced right away from where it bolts up too. The new parts were defective and so I had to go to the dealer to get the right one. So like shamrock said take the belt off an spin all of your pulleys by hand to see if their is any resisitance in any of them.

 

I am sure this is a given, but you are replacing the belt according to the vehicle not according to the old belt right. If you get one that is too loose/too tight you will get a squeak as well. I am betting on my previous reply though. To have a shiney spot on the flat side of the belt it has to be slipping on something.
Like Ruffneck said also check when it is running to make sure the belt is riding in the middle of each pulley and not hanging off.

 

I'm glad that you brought up the water pump. The water pump has also been replaced. It was replaced about a year ago. It was bad and coolant was pouring out through the seep hole. Originally I thought that the waterpump was allowing fluid onto the pulleys,thus creating the problem. I was wrong. Everything seems to spin as it should. I was thinking that maybe there was a "common" problem with the belt making noise. I figured it would be something common in these engines that is easily over looked. I'm really fed up with the belt issue. It's really sad that I'm so upset about the issue considering that I bought the truck for $1500 when it only had 123,000 miles on it. What I don't understand is why the new belt usually makes it sound normal for a month before it acts up, considering that when it does act up,the belt looks good as far as the grooves go. I have saved every used belt that I have taken off of the truck,and not a single groove is worn down,cracked, or out of the ordinary. I know that belt dressing just covers up the real problem with a loud belt,but it has worked on every vehicle that I have tried it on, except for this one. If I put belt dressing on my truck, it gets god awfull loud. Heck, it even worked on my 464 horsepower camaro z28 at the drag strip. But not on this truck. I will say however that when I am using my ac, the clutch kicks on and off a good bit and it is a very distinctive sound. The a/c cools as it should,but makes a loud noise when kicking on. But like I said, I have even pulled the fuse for the a/c to try to narrow down the problem,and it didn't help.

 

When the belt is making the noise and you are looking at the engine you don't see anything out of the ordinary??? It could be the A/C clutch. Buy a cheap belt for a non-A/C truck and totally bypass the compressor. The A/C clutch should have a gap about the thickness of a business card when not engaged.

 

Disreguard the last post I just read where the new belt cures it for a short time.


The fact that a new belt cures it for a short time either means A: The belt is the wrong one and slightly stretches to the point where it makes noise or B: There is some type of fluid that slowly gets the belt slippery enough to start slipping on one of the pulley's. That would also explain the shiney part of the belt. Does your truck use any fluids?

 

Nothing seems out of the ordinary when watching the belt move on the running engine. Other than the grooves on the idler pulley that shouldn't have been there, I did notice that it had a little bit of play in it when I tugged on it (obviously with the motor not running). The new idler does have a little play in it,just like the old one did. Is this normal? An older man (60+) noticed yesterday that he could move the tensioner by hand a little bit, although it is less than 3 months old. It is a more expensive tensioner from napa,as opposed to a cheap one at advance auto parts. I'm thinking of maybe putting a metal wire on the tensioner and pulling it back to see if maybe the "new" tensioner is still at fault.

 

That is very possible - also I just thought of this - triple check the belt routing. I had a 93 truck that came in squeeking and although the belt looked to be on properly it was not and was given just enough slack to make noise.
Grooves on the idler pulley mean that the wrong side of the belt is touching it. I bet the belt is routed wrong.

Remember every pulley with grooves needs to touch the grooved part of the belt - every smooth pulley needs to touch the smooth side of the belt.

 

Check here...
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...1t:429,r:5,s:0