Serpintine Belt

[Randy1]

I need to replace the serpintine belt on my Aurora, Its sqealing really loud and driving me nuts. I replace the belt on my truck this summer.
Bought the best Advance Auto Parts sells and its already sqealing.
Are the cheaper belts made with softer rubber? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[newscarver]

take a small amount of grease on the end of your finger and with the engine off find an exposed area of the belt and rub the grease into the inside, both sides and the back of the belt... you will likly get arguments like never grease a belt or it will slip,a little bit wont hurt in most cases

[Sweet William]

Greasing a belt does not sound like a very good idea. I would try to find out why it's slipping, not greasing it so it will slip more until it breaks. The extra heat and wear will cause the belt to fail before it's time.
Is the tension pulley moving freely so that the proper amount of pressure is on the belt? The bearings on the idler pulley are known to go bad. Altenator, Ac compressor, and power steering all could put too much of a load on the belt to make it sqeal if bearings are going bad.
I put Gates belts on both of my Auroras. One stock length and the other shorter to bypass the ac compressor that went bad. No problems with either.

[ugsrich]

Petroleum based lubricants and rubber are generally not good bed-fellows. Putting grease on a drive belt will probably cause premature degredation. I suggest that you use belt dressing as the means to properly address the squeaking situation.

[madcatter]

I agree completely with the belt dressing. If the noise persists, you have a bearing problem in one of the pulleys. Cross your fingers and hope it's an idler or tensioner pulley.

[Isnibs]

Originally Posted by Sweet William

One stock length and the other shorter to bypass the ac compressor that went bad. No problems with either.

Can you give me the part number or length of the shorter belt you used please.
Isnibs

[Randy1]

Originally Posted by Sweet William

Greasing a belt does not sound like a very good idea. I would try to find out why it's slipping, not greasing it so it will slip more until it breaks. The extra heat and wear will cause the belt to fail before it's time.
Is the tension pulley moving freely so that the proper amount of pressure is on the belt? The bearings on the idler pulley are known to go bad. Altenator, Ac compressor, and power steering all could put too much of a load on the belt to make it sqeal if bearings are going bad.
I put Gates belts on both of my Auroras. One stock length and the other shorter to bypass the ac compressor that went bad. No problems with either.

Who sells the Gates belts ? I've tried belt dressing and silicone spray but they only last a couple hundred miles.

[Sweet William]

Now that some others have posted I will say what I wanted to say the first time. Putting grease on a slipping belt is one of the dumbest things I've heard in a while. Newscarver, you are will have to convince me otherwise.
I would take a hard look at the reason for the belt slipping. It might keep you from being stranded when the part fails and wastes the belt on the highway in the middle of the night..

The Gates number is 6k739 for the shorter belt.

I don't think that there is a huge difference in belt qaulity, but you never know. Hell, most of them probably come from the same factory. I'm in Michigan and got them from CarQuest parts store. If you want to be sure you have the best qaulity there is always AcDelco, but Gates is a very well known name for belts and hoses.

[madcatter]

Goodyear Gatorbacks last a little longer with the slotted ribs, they'll withstand flexing around pulleys longer and supposedly they stay cooler too for the same reason, but they like to stretch out a little over time, not usually enough to hurt anything so it's 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other.
-N8

[indyboom]

If you grease it, SURELY make sure engine is off.. Ha another classic