Belt Auction

Squealing Belts On Cold Starts?

I have a 1995 Ford Laser KJII. And for a little while I've had trouble with the belts. First of all, they started squealing like everytime I started the car and died down and stopped squealing about 20-30 seconds later, and then were always fine. Not long after, I replaced the belts, took the pulleys off the gave them a extensive clean to remove every last bit of grime on them, and then put brand new Bosch belts on there. The car has a B6 motor if any of you are familiar with it, and has the crankshaft pulley with a belt connecting the power steering pump and A/C. And another belt connected to the crankshaft pulley which runs the alternator and waterpump. I know for sure that is is the alternator/water pump belt as I've tried the 'butter' solutions which no doubt proved the squealing to be coming from the alternator/waterpump belt. It is at it's worst particularly on cold/damp mornings or at night, when it is cold. It is also worse when the car is started with the A/C on, regardless of this fact, it is the alternator/waterpump belt. This just puts more load on the crankshaft pulley which then in turn puts more load on the alternator/waterpump belt. I tried putting 'CRC Belt Squeal' on the old belt before I changed them, which stopped the problem for a good 3 cold start ups. After replacing the belts, I tried re-tightening them (which did nothing), using butter on them (which temporarily fixes the problem for 2 cold starts) and 'Dri-Lube' (which quietened the belts but prolonged the squealing. I am confident its also not the pulleys as they don't make a grinding sounds or anything like that, and have had that backed up with my cousin who is a mechanic. Any help would be appreciated, but please no 'put belt dressing/squeal' on this as I've got many opinions as this just further damages the belt, also Dayco recommend to never ever use Belt Squeal. So I'm definitely not risking ruining these belts. The car does rev very high on cold starts, a quick pulse upto 2500revs/min and then straight back down (as I've done work on it) I'm suspecting this is the problem, as since the motor is revolving so fast, is doesn't give the belt a change to grip. Large force over very very little time doesn't work well when grip is needed. This is extremely frustrating as I've exhausted all my options and am also frustrated as I cannot fix such a simple problem while other work I've done on the car has been extremely complicated, and in the end, that all worked out fine. Such a small problem, such a huge load of annoyance! Thankyou! Sorry about the extremely long description too :) The squeal is deafening I will add, it probably could be heard kilometres away. It turns heads, but in the totally wrong way.

Public Comments

1. Replace worn belts or adjust the tension
2. Is it possible that the alternator has the wrong pulley on it and the belt rides all the way in the bottom? That would make the belt tight but not able to contact the right area of the belt and slip. Take the belt off and run some sand paper around the pulleys to remove all that butter so the belt can get a grip. Hope this will help.
3. Sounds like you've gone down the list of the usual suspects & cures (I agree that the commercial anti-squeal compounds usually just make a sticky mess of things - my home cure has been to apply just a bit of parrafin wax to the edges while engine is running). Honestly, if they only complain a bit at start-up, I'd ignore it: the fact that they do in on cold/damp mornings may just point to conditions it's parked in. If they were to squeal more often, the only thing I can think of is to check the allignment of all the pullieys: was a washer left out or misplaced when changing belts? Alternator bracket bent, etc. Been there - done that and have gotten over-zealous sometimes and over-tensioned belts: am sure you've been careful with that and avoid too slack or too taut (which can wear bearings in alternator, pumps, etc).