Gen4 VQ Belt Squeak Weirdness

Fun conclusion post. Short story:

Turned out to be the one that I actually thought was ok and the auto tensioner is frickin' near impossible to remove without removing the PS pump/pulley....read on

As above the auto tensioner and upper idler had play and probably needed replacing, but the lower idler which had no play had clear evidence that it was rubbing on the long mounting bolt. Seems the lower idler actually has two? bearings inside and from what I could see the inner bearing seal had gone a long time ago. The inner race was rubbing on the bolt, you could see the shiny patch where it made contact on removal.

Fun fact #1 the Gates part is almost twice the Dayco price for this pulley, I went Dayco for this part and saved $30 (~50%)

Fun fact #2 the Gates parts come with new bolts and dust shields, which are useless, I couldn't even get a stubby 17mm socket on the replacement bolt, even using a simple 3/8" breaker...just wouldn't fit. I cleaned up the original shields (much better quality) and re-used the original 13mm bolt. Next time I'll just buy all Dayco and not pay 'extra' for the useless hardware included with the Gates parts.

Fun fact #3 the top auto tensioner assembly mounting bolt is directly behind the outer rim of the PS pulley. No way you can get any kind of socket on this. I wound up using extra long box end 13mm wrench with a slight angle of 15'?? I was just able to get this on enough of the bolt head to break it loose, then had to put it on another 50x to get the bolt far enough out to remove with fingers

Fun fact #4 You cannot remove both the upper and lower auto tensioner bolts with tensioner in the same position. The lower only comes out when the tensioner is free, and the upper only comes out when the tensioner is locked in place with your 6mm allen key through both holes. So this means you have to lock it to remove the belt, unlock to loosen but not remove the lower bolt, relock it and work on the upper bolt, then careful unlock it again to remove the lower bolt and assembly. Installation is the reverse of this nightmare.

Fun fact #5 For whatever reason I removed mine still in the locked position...so to get your allen key back out...I used some vice grips to 'pinch' the two parts enough to remove the key, but when you unlock the vicegrips...it expands more than they do, so you have to tap the tensioner off the vicegrips...sigh.

All good now though...$180CDN later (I put a new belt on too).

FYI, I have seen dirt buildup concrete in pulley grooves in such a way that the pulley looked perfect until you looked super close to realize that the very bottom of the grooves was just built up enough to lightly lift the belt free of the groove sides to then squeal. I could only barely tell it in bright sunlight, and the dirt was so hard it took like an hour with a sharp knife to chisel it out of the grooves to be back to 100% clean grooves there. Before that every belt I put on made noise and all pulleys and tensioner in perfect shape, going nuts there for a bit. The dirt was deposited so perfectly it looked like part of the pulley.

Part of a bad bearing is feel as well, I have seen a certain smooth rolling of a bearing with no looseness that simply felt TOO smooth and easy and no other way to describe it. The bearing DNFed like a week later. Thinking the bearing was still tight but completely 100% out of lube to go bad shortly thereafter, it was like spinning one with all the lube washed out with solvent.

Of late I have been practicing carefully removing one side seal to relube a bearing and reattach the seal to get essentially a new bearing if it is still tight. That idea seems to be working out pretty good. You have to be pretty picky about it though. Just 'rebuilt' an a/c clutch maybe 3 months ago doing that and it's working fine, as is the tensioner roller and idler.

Thanks for the tip about the dirt in grooves, could be a possibility, especially if some of it is rust dust which will polish nicely and look like the original base metal. I did wash each pulley down with some brake cleaner...reason for that was when my inner CV joint failed, it slunch axle grease directly at the main tensioner pulley...which of course evenly distributed it all over the belt and every pulley. Idea was to wash the pulleys and replace the belt...however, I replaced it with the one I had removed two years previous (don't ask why I still had it)....and it worked great for a day before screaming endlessly (which I chalk up to the citrus solvent I cleaned the idler pulleys with (not wanting to use the chlorinated brake cleaner on the painter pulleys)...I figure that softened and quietened the back side rubber...and once it evaporated...the squeal came back x10! There was no cracking of the v-ribs or any indication that the ribbed side of the belt was contaminated or otherwise defective...however the flat back side of the belt had a definite polished/hardened look/appearance to it...so my theory is that the back was squealing against an idler pulley.

Regardless, the supple new Conti belt, which actually has a textured back side, eliminated every peep from the system. Who would have thought a $12 belt could do that so absolutely? Anyways, I've done with Gates products on VQs...they just don't last.