Hi,
Hopefully easy question. The air conditioning belt keeps either stretching or loosening
(or something) so that I get loud squeals when I turn on the AC. Other than that, all works
great -- very cold etc. When I tighten it, it'll run quietly for a month or so before the squealing
starts again. Are there some steps I'm missing when I tighten? I replaced the
original belt, which was stretched out.
Yes, v-belts suck. I have the same problem and suspect everyone else with working AC does too. What makes it worse is the placement of the adjuster.
Here's the scenario: You put on a new belt and tension it properly. AC works great for 2 or 3 days.........but new belts stretch, and by the 4th day it's squealing. Since it sucks so bad to adjust, you put it off. By the 6th day, belt is destroyed and will never grip as it should. So, you put a new belt on and tension it properly.........and the saga continues.
The key to the problem is STOP using your AC as soon as the belt begins slipping, then go home and re-tension your new belt. The 2nd adjustment should last a while.........probably the entire summer season. Before next summer, be sure to re-tension as to avoid unnecessary slipping. If you get 30k miles out of an AC belt you're lucky. I was thinking about adding a 2nd belt or perhaps changing to a serpentine, but that's a lot of work. Tim
Thank you for the information.
Do any of those belt conditioner sprays help, or are they just gimmicks?
I'll re-tension over the weekend. I had noticed that sometimes the tension
lasts longer than other times.
Belt sprays work............for about 5 minutes. So basically they are worthless. Another thing that can happen is belts and pulleys can become glazed. Glazing is when the contact surfaces get super shiny & highly polished. This is usually cause by belts that have been slipping a lot. If this happens, even new & properly tensioned belts can slip. I've seen this a few times and it can be frustrating. I've gone so far as to remove pulleys, then use a die grinder with 60 grit sandpaper to rough up the contact surfaces. TimOriginally Posted by rcf_1989
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