lbeck

Hello!! I am new to this fourm and am looking for some advice.. I have a 2001 Focus 2.0 SPI. I have a loud squeaking noise coming from one of the pulleys for the serpentine belt. Not sure which one it is. My guess would be the belt tensioner or the idler pulley? Not sure which one would be more likely to cause this. My question is, if it is the tensioner.. can just the pulley itself be removed or does the whole tensioner assembly need to be removed from the engine block and replaced? Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks
Larry

360ci

Your idler is most likely shot. There are bearings inside that will wear over time and cause the noise you hear. You can replace the pulley without removing the whole belt assembly. I'd recommend on renting or borrowing some pulley remover tools to save yourself some time and aggravation.

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'00 Durango R/T 360ci 290hp (modded); 138,500m
'06 Pontiac G6 GT 3.5L 220hp; 44,000m
'12 Chrysler 200 Limited 3.6L 283hp; 13,000m
'99 Taurus 3.0L 2V Vulcan 145hp; 154,300m - Traded
Amsoil in all vehicles!

bestharry

Hi,Its fairly straight forward procedure. All pulleys are held by just one bolt in the middle. Sometimes the old worn belt (shiny suface) is going to make a squeky noise specially when its cold but there is no harm in removing the belt and checking pulley one by one by turning them by hand.

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"A NOVICE EXPERT"

Wobbie

What can happen to these is the tensioner gets "frozen" in place. I bought a used 'o1 that may have been sitting on a lot for some time and found that it would give a short single chirp when I started it. Sometimes when wet it would squeel loudly from a stop sign with the fan and rear defrost on.

I got to poking around and found the belt in fair shape and still within the wear limit on the tensioner, but the tensioner wouldn't move. I would up with a chunk of a hockey stick fed up through the hole in the lower control arm - poshing up with a small floor jack on the bottom of the tensioner. Eventually I was able to get enough movement (slack) to remove the belt. Then I could get a wrench on the pulley (tensioner - not the idler) and work it up and down to loosen it. Then I replaced the belt.

The belt is in fair shape - a little polished on the back side but no cracking or loss on the rib side.

Come spring (or sooner if it acts up again) I'll pull the tensioner and see if I can free it up some more.

In this case I am blaming the fact that it may have been sitting unused for some time. I expect that if run regularly that the tensioner wouldn't lock up this way - or maybe it would.

You folks tell me!

rw