No One Can Figure This Out (idle, buy, engine, replace)
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Bought a brand new Corolla in 2005. Within a few months the alternator belt squealed loudly. Toyota replaced the belt- 5 times in the first 30,000 miles. Then they replaced some sort of tension control arm pulley something-or-other. Didn't help at all. Now at 90,000 miles and if I have the belt removed and cleaned it is fine for about a week and then back to the squealing that can be heard for blocks around. The noise is cut in half after the car is warmed up- generally, but not always.
Bought a brand new Corolla in 2005. Within a few months the alternator belt squealed loudly. Toyota replaced the belt- 5 times in the first 30,000 miles. Then they replaced some sort of tension control arm pulley something-or-other. Didn't help at all. Now at 90,000 miles and if I have the belt removed and cleaned it is fine for about a week and then back to the squealing that can be heard for blocks around. The noise is cut in half after the car is warmed up- generally, but not always.
Toyota gave up trying to repair the car.
Any ideas?
They should have replaced the pulley if they did everything else.
Usually this problem is caused by too loose tension on the belt and/or the belt has glazed over thereby causing the belt to slip. Next cause could be a bad pulley.
Find a reliable independentt garage to check this out for you. Checking it should cost you nothing.
does it change when the a/c is on or off?
does it get worse when turning?
did they replace the whole belt tensioner or just the pulley on the tensioner?
with the car off and cooled down, push and pull on the belt gently, how much give is in it?
twist it to get the ribbed part turned around as much as you can (gently), how much does it turn before it won't anymore?
When you say the belt is removed and cleaned, do you mean you do that? Or a garage? With the belt off, have you checked any of the other pulleys such as the alternator pulley, power steering pulley, a/c pulley to see if they have play? Or if there's any damage to the pulleys or grooves?
When the belt starts to squeal, my first concern is what is it turning that is going bad. Bad water pump, Bad power steering pump bad idlers wheels, bad AC pulley? Take the belt off and turn the pulleys by hand, if any of them make any crackling noise are in any any hard to turn, you just found the reason for the squealing belt. Replace the part(s) and then replace the belt (again).
BTW if the engine has more then 50,000 miles on it since any of these parts have been replaced, just replace the idler(s) while you are in there. You said that they replaced the belt tensioner, so don't replace that part.
Whenever I have had a squealing belt I have always found something else going or gone bad.
This is a known weak point for that generation of Corolla. I replaced my serpentine belt and the tensioner. Problem went away. The tensioner is usually the weak point.
That's certainly not normal for a serpentine belt to be replaced so frequently. My original one lasted about 75,000 miles before it needed replacement.
Bought a brand new Corolla in 2005. Within a few months the alternator belt squealed loudly. Toyota replaced the belt- 5 times in the first 30,000 miles. Then they replaced some sort of tension control arm pulley something-or-other. Didn't help at all. Now at 90,000 miles and if I have the belt removed and cleaned it is fine for about a week and then back to the squealing that can be heard for blocks around. The noise is cut in half after the car is warmed up- generally, but not always.
Toyota gave up trying to repair the car.
Any ideas?
This is from Don, an independent shop owner. We see these cars all the time.
Find the ticket from Toyota and see if they replaced the entire tensioner assembly or just the pulley. If they replaced just the pulley, they need to replace the entire tensioner assembly. They also need to check for oil leaking on to the belt. The dealership sounds kind of lame to me.
Agree with the others... most likely a tensioner/pulley problem. We're not quite sure what they replaced, I'd take it to a different dealer and have them pull up the service records.
If they in fact did replace the tensioner and that didn't work, then I'd go buy a can of Permatex belt dressing. It will help stop the squealing. Coat the belt with it, let it dry, then go drive the car and see if it's improved. Drive it for a bit to warm up the engine and belt, the stop the car and spray some more on it. Repeat.
From what you're describing, it's a minor slippage if the sound decreases when the belt is hot.
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