I'm about to throw my 4th gen out because of this annoying belt squeek I've been fighting for years. Thought I fixed with a new idler pulley and belt tensioner some months back and now its back worse than ever.

So a couple dumb questions.

Can I safely run my 98Z(A4) without the drive belt briefly and rev the engine to make sure the squeek is coming from the drive belt (say 30 seconds)? With the AC belt off?

I assume reving the engine effects the speed of the AC and Drive belts. Right?

The more I rev/faster RPMs the more frequent the squeek. So I assume the above is yes.

Can an exhaust leak sound like a belt squeek? (Poetic)

 

Yes you can run the engine, but I have never heard an exhaust leak squeal...

 

Running it briefly wont hurt, but dont do it too long.
Is it more of a squeak, or a consistent squeal?

A pully can sound similar to a belt, such as the alternator. Can you pin point it to a certain pully like that?

 

It seems to be a squeak that almost goes away at idle. I did replace the alternator, idler puller, and belt tensioner about 3 months back. Squeaks went away completely, then during a recent cold spell here they came back and even today at 60+ outside it squeaks like a ****.

I think I'll yank the belt completely and rev it just to isolate it between the drive and AC belt and work my way from there.

This thing is spinning me into a new level of pissed off.

This one is tough since the engine is obviously loud so it's hard to hear exactly where the squeak is coming from.

 

This was happening with my brothers 98 T/A and we couldn't figure it out and then I decided to just cut off the ac belt since his didn't work and it went away

 

This is one area I'm suspecting. My AC has been bad for years. A year bakc, y I tried to buy a tensioner for that, but they sent me the drive belt tensioner, so WTF, I installed that later on. That's why I want to yank the drive belt briefly and check. If so, then I may get off my *** and order an AC kit and do the replacement finally.

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

Don't know if you've tried this, but my '97 with 13K squeaked something awful. However, it did not sound like a belt to me -- more like an alternator bearing. None the less, I replaced the belt with a new one and viola! No more squeak.

 

Well I took off the AC belt and rev'd the engine and got the squeak. Also I remembered a couple days back I hit the smooth side of the drive belt with dressing while the engine was running and didn't get much squeaking (so not idler pulley I think). Today I decided to hit the grooved side and the squeaking came more easily when I went to rev the engine (above 2k it starts squekin'). So on the grooved side I know there's the alternator a culprit. But I'll let the dressing dry and see what happens tomorrow.

If it continues, I'll try another belt and if not, the f'in alternator may have to come out. God that thing is a pain to replace. If that is the case, then I got what I deserved for getting a 're-cored' one from autozone.

Doubt it's the water pump since it's driving by the smooth side of the belt.

God I hate the noise on the road and especially going into the parking garage at work.

edit: I have 3 drive belts hanging on my garage wall as a reminder of my battles with squeaks over the years.

 

Read an interesting trick on another forum. They said to hit the belt with street chalk. I fired up the Z this morning and the belt dressing did no good. I hit the back of the belt with street chalk, nada. Then the grooved side, squeek gone.

So assuming all the pulleys are not slipping, it looks like my drive belt is slipping. I wonder how long the chalk trick will hold up? I'll just use it as a temp fix till I can get a new belt and hopefully address this. Lord, I hope it's not the tensioner since it's new and I threw the old one out...

 

Well Mr. DTP.... 1 DAY!!!!!

 

are you sure you dont have any fluids leaking? It can only takes a few drops to get a belt to start squeaking

 

I need to check my power steering. I have a lingering leak there but lower near the rack. I slapped on some old gator back belt and the problem went away. I didn't notice anything on the belt I took off but maybe a thin layer of something could be on there I suppose. Thanks for idea. Damn old car.