92 Geo Metro Squeeling

[Jaquetha]

I replaced the motor in my 92 Geo Metro, and now i have squealing noise i believe is coming from my Alternator belt. It eats my belts and squeals all the time. Every time i press in the clutch the squealing goes away. Sometimes if i shift up the squealing goes away. Any ideas????

[geozukigti]

Perhaps you didn't tighten the serpentine belt enough, or maybe you tightened it too much? If you replaced the engine along with the alternator, perhaps the new engine's alternator has a bad bearing in it. Take the belt off, and see if it spins freely.

[Jaquetha]

The alternator is fairly new. I have taken the alternator to get tested twice and it is fine. I go through a belt every couple of months and the squeeling is still the same.

[unbe]

I don't understand why pushing in the clutch would make the alt belt squeal go away.

[mowfixer]

Boy does that sound familiar! My 93 3 cyl has been killing me with this problem. It eats one belt every month or so. I have replaced the alternator and pully, water pump and pump pully and crankshaft pully. Still eats belts and squeels. I had tightened it so much to stop the squeeling I trashed the water pump bearings on a three month old pump.

I have been thinking of putting a perfectly good running metro in the salvage yard over what should be a simple belt or pully problem. Several mechanics have looked at it and they are all stumped.

One told me to get a belt from a dealer or high end parts house and that should fix it. So, my last straw will be to try this and then I guess the old girl will hit the salvage lot. Cant keep putting b elts on and burning up water pump bearings. Its getting too expensive.

Good luck, you will need it.

[RossT]

timing belt tensioner?

[Jaquetha]

The engine i place in it was a used one with about 60K miles and i never had the problem until i placed this one in it. I placed everything from the old one on the new IE alternator and water pump. I think i'll find a cliff to drive it off of soon.....

[mowfixer]

Mine also is wierd. When I make a right turn it starts squeeling. I can not drive the car at night because as soon as I tun the headlights on the belt starts squeeling. If I turn the heater fan on it starts squeeling.

This car did not do this for over 200,000 miles. But once it started we can not get it to stop. Mine also shreds the belt with small pieces of rubber everywhere, like there is a misalignmnet. But that has been checked as well and there is no obvious pully alignment issue.

As I said earlier my mechanic suggested I try a sealer or high end belt. I have been using belts from a large parts store chain and perhaps these are the problem.

This car runs like new even after 200,000 miles but I will gladly send it to the crusher if I cant get this fixed SOON!

[mpGEO]

I just bought a 97 1.3 lsi coupe and am working through the maintenance schedule to catch up with past neglect. This car has been squealing the belt when it was cold. I know it is the alternator belt because the belt gets hot. The pulley on the alternator also gets hot. The belt looked cracked so I replaced it and it still squealed. I had to put a metal bar behind the alternator and put some serious torque on it to get it to quit squealing. I adjusted the belt a little tighter than I think it should be but it seems to have quit squealing. I have always heard that if you let a belt squeal it will glaze and then you will never get it to quit squealing.

edit: I drove the car today and can confirm that the squeal is gone.

[carpenter_jai]

This problem comes up often on this forum. I had it too. Just to add my own two cents, I will agree with mpGeo. Replace the belt with a lifetime waranty belt, tighten the hell out of it, and it should be fine. 80,000 km and it still hasn't wrecked the bearings in my alternator or my water pump. More squealing is caused by more electrical load placed on the alternator. When the clutch is in, the engine is disengaged, and no longer using the alternator to charge the battery.

Jai

[bonedavid]

Originally Posted by carpenter_jai

This problem comes up often on this forum. I had it too. Just to add my own two cents, I will agree with mpGeo. Replace the belt with a lifetime waranty belt, tighten the hell out of it, and it should be fine. 80,000 km and it still hasn't wrecked the bearings in my alternator or my water pump. More squealing is caused by more electrical load placed on the alternator. When the clutch is in, the engine is disengaged, and no longer using the alternator to charge the battery.

Jai

wise words well spoken.

the better the belt the less likely it'll wear out.

in this case you do get what you pay for

[geozukigti]

Originally Posted by carpenter_jai

When the clutch is in, the engine is disengaged, and no longer using the alternator to charge the battery.

Jai

Umm, that's not true. The alternator is engauged 100% of the time, unless the belt is broken. It's connected to the crankshaft.. Which is always spinning unless the engine is off. The only thing the clutch does is disconnect the rotation of the engine from the transmission. When you press the clutch, it relaxes the load on the engine, because it doesn't have to turn the input shaft of the trans(causing the engine RPM's to go up slightly usually). Check and see if your crank pulley is wobbling, or any other pulleys are wobbling. They also make a "belt conditioner" spray. Perhaps one of your pulleys has some grease or oil on it, causing it to slip, and get really hot. Spray it down really good with the belt conditioner. Should clean it off. Does your engine have an oil leak on that side?

[idmetro]

Besides the quality and tightness of the belt my metro's alternator belt squeal seems to be closely related to the alignment of the alternator pulley with the crank pulley that drives the belt. I align/tighten the alternator and then use a carpenters square to insure I have not "tweaked" it, even a small mis-alignment makes it squeal for the first couple of minutes of operation. Believe it or not it seems to make a difference in which order the bolts are tightened (different times I will need to tighten them in a different order to influence which way the alternator "tilts" to get the best alignment). I can usually get it aligned well in a try or two and then its quiet for a couple of months until things wear/shift and then it needs attention again.