Belt Squeal

[dhalltoyo]

2008 Chevy Express Cargo Van with 6.0L

 

At 1000 miles belt began to squeal at road speeds.

 

Chevy dealer in Rockford, IL cleaned belt and pulleys. They said there was a foreign substance on them. Gee!!! It would have been nice to determine what was the substance. Later on, I looked at the Repair Order and it said, "moisture on belt" "normal occurrance." Hmmmmm.

 

Headed home to Dayton, OH. 400 miles later squeal gets worse. Dropped off at original dealer's shop today.

 

Doesn't squeal upon start up. Idle for 5 minutes and squeal is heard if you rev the engine. Squeal also heard as you get up past 700 rpm and right up to and through cruising speed.

 

 

Any ideas? Any service bulletins? Anyone experience this condition?

[-Devil-]

hmmm my guess would be a fluid leak ... or a bad tensioner / faulty belt ...

[dhalltoyo]

hmmm my guess would be a fluid leak ... or a bad tensioner / faulty belt ...

 

You would think that they would have looked for a fluid leak...but.....

 

Is that tensioner a sealed bearing unit?

[-Devil-]

someone else will have to answer that part, but i would assume so ...

 

heh .. i took a new car in for noisy belts ... all they ended up doing was replacing them ... about a month later i had one snap on me ... (ended up being i had a bad power steering pump and it was leaking fluid onto the belts causing them to squeel and eventually break) ... so they replaced them again, i kept an eye on it this time because i figured there was something going on, sure enough the next day the belts always seemed wet to the touch ... when i carried it back they tried saying that the snapped belt caused the leak ... ... when it had been there all along and they just didn't look for it...

[Zembonez]

2008 Chevy Express Cargo Van with 6.0L

 

At 1000 miles belt began to squeal at road speeds.

 

A properly tensioned new serpentine belt is pretty quiet. They can certainly squeal when worn. Since you only have 1000 miles or so, I would think there is possibly a pulley that isn't turning freely or a tensioner that isn't keeping the belt tight enough. Your dealer should replace the belt and check the tension. There is a spec in the book that tells what the tension should be. If it reoccurs I would have them start looking at accessories driven by the belt. Obviously this isn't "normal" for a new truck.