squeeky belt or dry bearing?

[waly5]

Hi. I have a noise i cant pin point but is very annoying and maybe someone else has had this problem . I degeased the v6 in the commodore and since then its had this noise that first sounded like a squeeky belt. But when i really listened it sounded like a noisey bearing in a pully. I removed and lubricated a lower ildler pully but no luck. I even put lots of lanolin spray on pullies and any moving parts. No luck. If i get spray on the belt its louder and goes a little quieter when the move heats up. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Big-Al]

Most likely one of the idler pulley bearings is stuffed. They don't cost much to replace.

Check that your belt is sitting correctly on all of the pulleys as well.

 

[mpower]

grab some grease, rip out all the pulleys including tensioners and re-grease. How old is the belt?

 

[Nut Kracker]

You have obviously ripped the grease out of something when you degreased the engine.
I don't think lanolin spray will correct the issues you have, even temporarily.

One or more of the pulleys may even be beginning to seize up.
Is the belt very shinny, as though it's slipping?

As said above, rip 'em out and re grease them properly, or replace them and also check the belt.
Dry bearing/s are going to pack it in real quick.

 

[Big-Al]

Regreasing the bearings is a waste of time. If you have washed out the remaining grease, the squealing is metal on metal contact and the bearings are already stuffed.

 

[waly5]

grab some grease, rip out all the pulleys including tensioners and re-grease. How old is the belt?

The belt is about 3 years old. I took the belt off and cleaned that and the pullies. The noise almost goes away when the car has warmed up after driving 10 or 15 minutes.

 

[waly5]

Ok. Even though the belt looks in good condition the degreaser must have done something to the belt and made the horriblye noise. Took a gamble with a new belt as i carefully checked all pullies and cleaned them the noise was still there. So the old belt looked good but that was the problem not the pullies. Thanks for all your thoughts.

 

[DaveNZ]

hi waly5, glad you got it sorted.
My VZ Adventra was making a loud sh-ing noise since i got it running again a couple weeks back, but i have been concentrating on other issues.
anyways, it sounded bad like if you make a really loud SHHHH!!!! sound(kinda high pitched light scraping sound).
at first it sounded like the water pump but i already replaced that a couple weeks back.
the belt itself looked ok but when i looked closely at the tensioner pulley arms while it was running, 1 was rock solid & the other had a slight wobble(2mm's) up & down.
so i removed the tensioner arm & idler complete.
i should state that the adventra has a tensioner on the right(drivers side) of the engine which is not blocked/covered by anything & requires nothing else to be loosend or removed prior. all i did was put the socket drive on the tensioner square hole & took the tension off the belt long enough to pull the belt off the pulley & out of the way.
the belt is the 'inside belt (of 2) so i just left it on & pushed it out of the way behind the pulley, being careful not to let the pulley pinch the belt as i let the tension off & it lifted back up into position.
it was only 1 bolt through the middle of the main tensioner arm to take the whole thing off.
next i removed the idler pulley from the tensioner which is 1 bolt which is accessed from behind the pulley (that's why you have to take the whole tensioner out, to get at it)
i held the pully in one hand & put my finger through the bearing inside the pulley & turned it, it did not turn smooth & tight, it felt coarse & loose.
i put the pulley in the wood vice not too tight as to bend the pulley out of round & tapped the bearing out using a hammer with a socket that was the same size as the bearing.
i'd bought a new bearing for $11 from repco.

i should state at this point that the repco has the incorrect diagrams & part numbers for the idler pulleys & tensioners on an adventra. it shows the diagram of a standard vz commodore which is way different. even when looking it up via my plate number.
will probably start another thread on that to warn others.

anyways.. i gave the pulley a very light swipe of grease inside to help the new bearing glide in & prevent corrosion, then gently tapped the new bearing into the pulley using the old bearing.
i had to tap a bit harder to get it all the way in & i kept checking how far to go by undoing from the vice & flipping over to look at it from the back(no point just whacking blindly eh).
then i put the pulley back on the tensioner arm & tightened the bolt, could've used loctite but just did it up firm, not mantight.
put it all back on & yay! nice & quiet now
took about 15-20 minutes which inluded cleaning the pulley & tensioner up.

even though waly5's problem was different to mine, i added this to the post in case someone else has a noisy belt or bearing noise & is looking to diagnose or fix.
anyone with half a brain, basic tools & patience can do this, i barely meet the criteria myself but somehow managed it.
peace all.