Ive always wondered this, and finally remembered to ask because of a friend.

He was at autozone, had no problems with his belts and he asks me if he should get "belt dressing" one of the sales guy dropped a line about it making the belt last longer.

Now 4 days later....he's asking me how he gets that crap off, because now his belts are loud and before they never made a noise.

I told him to go pour a couple of warm cups of water on them while it was running...........just what i could think of...

So that leads to the question...why does belt dressing make your belts squeek when the bottle says it stops them?

Anyone really know the deal with this stuff?

 

It's only intended for use on the old V-type belts, not modern serpentine belts.

 

what he said

Belt dressing is just a bandaid to fixing the real problem. If the belts squeel then something is loose, bad or broken. In my mind its basically a mechanic in a can thing.

To get it off, pull the belt and toss it in the trash. Clean all the pullies and parts with some brake clean and put a new belt back on.

 

I wouldn't use belt dressing on anything.

 

Hymmmm just clean the belt with some WD40..............


No wait motor oil might be better

 

when we had the 95 Astro that always squeeked!

I used belt dressing sometimes, squeek would go away for 10 minutes then return louder then ever.

I finally gave up and just lived with it.

 

Plus most people don't bother to read the directions on the back. The belt is supposed to come off and it's supposed to go back on after the dressing has dried. I've used it once or twice while I had the belt off, I would spray it and then wipe it down, made it feel cleaner and a little grippier. It is not going to fix any problems you already have with your belt, such as fraying or glazing, etc. Similar to stop leak in that situation. It can be used for maintenance (after all, it will take off dirt & grime, which will make the belt wear slower, and it makes it stick a little better, which will help prevent glazing), but given how much belts cost there's not much of a point anyway, unless you've got a Ferrari and the belt costs like 100+...

 

I use it...I replaced the belt and cleaned everything prior to installing the new belt...it was squeaking bad.

Now with the new belt every three months or so it starts a light chirp noise...I hit it with a quick shot of belt dressing and it's good for another 2-3 months.

I don't know what's up with that, possibly a weak belt tensioner? maybe light wet sand the pulleys or something? hellifino...

 

Actually a little sanding on the pulleys when changing belts is recommended. It could also be a weak tensioner, although that generally causes problems with the belt, it likes to jump around and stuff.

 

I'm gonna have to give it one more shot at fixing it now that youv'e said that!

Just for the record I used this same stuff on my mother's Buick , the Buick was not making any noise I just put stuff on as dressing thinking it must be good for it, then the belt started screaming and no amount of cleaning or driving it around would make it go away, I had to replace the belt.

Moral of the story: ...if it isn't broke don't fix it.