Belt Noise?!?

SO yesterday I started up the '96 wagon and was greeted with a constant "Tweetie Bird" sound. WTF? Car was quiet and fine all weekend. Had a pretty cold morning yesterday, in the low 50's, and I thought maybe the belt was slipping a bit. Drove it to work, and it did quiet down some, but would still tweet if I revved the engine.

I have no idea how old the belt is, it was on the car when I bought it, so I'm hoping it's just old. When I open the hood the sound is coming from the passenger side, so it could be a pulley....or heaven fobid the a/c compressor, but the compressor is dry, no leaks, and a/c working fine. Fingers are crossed.

I drove the Cutlass in to work today and will pick up a belt at lunch. Project tonight. My car has the tow package, and there sure seems to be A LOT of junk in the way just to get the main belt off!

Never a dull moment. Will pass on how it comes out.

-Mike

Spray it down with WD40 and see if it shuts up. It could be the belt or the tensioner.

Doesn't that ruin the belt..?

It didn't kill mine, 4,000 later.

I may try that and see if it shuts it up.

I haven't done this in a while but I always took a bar of soap and ran it against the ribbed side of the belt for a few seconds. Usually helped quiet down a squeaky belt.

Soap is suppose to ruin a serpentine belt due to the pressure that is exerted on both side of the belt during operation.
Thats what my older manuals say anyhow.
Being a LT-1 virgin,not familiar yet with its exocentricitys.If thats the wrong use of that word,SORRY.I dont think I
even spelled it right!Fortunately I am a fast learner.
Jim Gordon

About to go home and tackle this project. Fingers are crossed!

Fun project last night. I stopped and got a new serp belt, and got home at 6pm, just as the sun was almost down. Did I mention I HATE THE TIME CHANGE!?!?!?!

Anyway, it was more of a pain than I thought. To get the main serp belt off, I ended up pulling the fan shroud and fan, then fan belt, and then removing the fan belt tensioner. Then had to unbolt the support for the upper radiator hose.

At this point I could see the serp belt tensioner...it's way down on the bottom front of the engine. I went to pry it back, and it had almost no tension in it.....DING DING, problem found! I unbolted that tensioner and the plastic back that covers the spring housing was cracked. Back to the parts store!

$36 later I had a new serp tensioner. Bolted it on, installed the new serp belt, grabbed the fan belt, which was marked Goodyear and I'd thought was in good shape....then I took a look and the ribs were more cracked than I thought.....back to the parts store....trip #3.

Got back and installed the fan belt tensioner, the fan belt, fan, and shroud, then wiped my handprints off the engine compartment and put tools away.

Engine is quiet as can be. But still have dirty hand prints on front fenders and bumper....

Drove to the car wash at 9:30pm.....home at 10:30.....car washed and vaccumed for good measure....

Car is clean and in the parking lot here at work today. Never a dull moment!

-Mike

I just hit 86K miles. Car had 73K when I bought it in April. 13K miles in half a year....I gotta drive my Cutlass more. I feel guilty, but I love driving the Roadmaster.

After replacing all the age-worn items when I got the car, like the shocks, tires, hoses and such, the only real failures I've had were the water pump, the EGR valve, and now this tensioner.

These are such good cars! Considering it's 14 years old and I drive the wheels off it, I have zero complaints!

-Mike

Good job on the fix. These cars are amazing how reliable they are when properly maintained. My 95 roady with 102k on it is the absolute best car I ever bought. All it has asked of me in the last 3 years and 20k miles is oil, a tensioner, and a compressor (original problem when I bought her).

By contrast, my 99k riviera is the biggest piece of junk I ever owned. Replaced the engine, compressor, wheel bearings, shocks, evap parts, constant ABS issues, and so on

Glad ya got it all fixed! And yes, when you have the mechanical fan, belt replacement is a major pain. Quite easy without though! Almost reason enough to do a fan delete on it's own.

I really like those Riv's, they're so sharp, sorry to hear it's given you so many issues.

I had that 95 Park Ave Ultra, which had a lot of the same stuff, and it was always giving me false ABS, Security, and Traction Control warnings. The transmission failed at 55K miles too...for no reason. I put it in reverse and heard a loud POP, and totally lost reverse. I had 1st only...luckily I was close to home...drove home at 30mph and 4000rpm.. Replaced the trans and sold that car right after.

I just picked up a tensioner on the way home for the caddy, too. Boy am I glad it doesn't have the tow pack.

It is a ha-yuge PITA to change the belt with the HD cooling. Boo! I don't miss that!

Well I thought about swapping to all electric but I may do some towing with this car, and being in Texas, I kinda like the mechanical fan...just in case.

But yes, it sure made changing that belt a challenge!

I never knew just how easy a belt and tensioner swap was until I got my Caprice with no tow pack. Its amazing how difficult it is to do almost anything on the engine in my RMW with the towing option!

DBeaSSt wrote:

Glad ya got it all fixed! And yes, when you have the mechanical fan, belt replacement is a major pain. Quite easy without though! Almost reason enough to do a fan delete on it's own.

X2

My black car is non tow pack and the other 2 are. One would think for the number of times I've had to change water pumps I would have changed fans by now. Another planned project...

Jon

Damn glad that my new wagon does not have the tow package now that Mike has wrote this informative post.
Very happy that it does have everything like the trans cooler,oil cooler all the other HD stuff listed on the VIN
decoder site.
HONOR OUR VETS
Jim Gordon

remember this trick for a squeaky belt,. add a fingerful of silicone to the inside of the belt with the motor shut off,. run it for a min or so, then shut it off and let it sit for an hour or overnite,. belt will quit squeaking,. won't deteriorate .

nick