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Pulley Squeal

tireburner454

By tireburner454
in Ask A GM Technician

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tireburner454 Enthusiast

tireburner454

Posted
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I have this high pitched squeal coming from one of my pulleys. It happened one day when I was pulling on the highway, I floored the truck after I got up to about 80 I settled to cruise, and suddenly I could hear this high pitched squeal. When it first started happening, it seemed it would only do it while the AC or defrosters were on. Now it will squeal intermittenly, but sometimes will do it for about 10-15 seconds while the AC or defrosters are on. The truck is a 2001 5.3L Silverado with 60,000 miles. It's hard to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. Had anyone else heard of this problem? Could it be an idler pulley, and it's dragging when the AC compressor kicks on and off? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated...........Tom

minibike132 Senior Enthusiast

minibike132

Posted
Posted

Pretty common for them to need a A\C belt and tensioner. DO NOT USE BELT DRESSING or apply any other lubing crap to the belts, this only masks problems and usually makes them worse in the long run.

tireburner454 Enthusiast

tireburner454

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Pretty common for them to need a A\C belt and tensioner. DO NOT USE BELT DRESSING or apply any other lubing crap to the belts, this only masks problems and usually makes them worse in the long run.

 

 

You think the first thing I should start with is a belt, and take it from there? I was wondering if I had perhaps glazed the belt over by getting on it.

minibike132 Senior Enthusiast

minibike132

Posted
Posted

You could try a belt but it's usually the tensioner. They are kind of a pain to do so I try not to do them twice (if you do a belt and that doesn't fix it you'll be taking it off twice). Usually you can take a light watch the tensioner while you have the a\c on and give a little gas you can see the tensioner bouncing. It's hard to tell you how to feel if the tensioner is bad over the computer you just have to know what you are feeling for.

tireburner454 Enthusiast

tireburner454

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Ok I'll try to take a peek at the tensioner this weekend and see if I notice the bouncing. Are they hard to change? Do you need any special tools? I've already had the belt off once and spun the pulleys, and wiggled them to see if there was any play, but I never checked the tensioner. I wouldn't know how to tell if that was worn or had play. Thank you, for the advice, I'll let you know how I make out............Tom

minibike132 Senior Enthusiast

minibike132

Posted
Posted

No special tools needed. I wouldn't put it high up on the list of difficult things to do it's just kind of a pain in the ass to get down there.

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