Belt chirp

jdumont · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:31 am

Morning all, time has come to replace what I hope is my belt. I get an annoying chirp from the engine compartment normally in the AM and when its wet out. My question is this, before I replace the belt what are the chances that the idler pulley can also make that noise and only when its wet out?

How difficult is it to replace the belt? Never had to do that yet on this Jeep...
Thanks

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:44 am

It's not hard if you don't have the heavy duty cooling (mechanical fan)

Find the correct socket that fits over the tensioner pulley and then use a breakerbar over the wrench for leverage. Apply pressure and the tensioner swings out of the way, it's spring loaded so the breaker bar comes in handy. Slip the belt off the tensioner pulley and then release the pressure on the wrench slowly so you don't damage it.

Remove the belt from all the other pulleys.

Install the new belt on as many pulleys as you can and then get ready to work the tensioner in the open postion and slip the belt back into it's path.

It's not a hard job to do after you do it the first time. But the 1st run through will probably be a tad bit annoying as you try to juggle both items in your hand and still looking at the belt. IF you have the HD cooling - that mechanical fan takes away a lot of space so you have almost no room for arms and tools. It also makes things very hard to reach.

Uffe · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:18 am

Could this possibly just be the tensioner pulley that needs to be tightened?

jdumont · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:20 am

Not sure, do they come loose? Is there just a bolt on the front of the pulley? Is it the same bolt thats used to lift the tensioner clockwise?

Uffe · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:37 am

I should have been more clear. What I meant was can the belt be tightened further by tightening it with the tension pulley?

jdumont · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:04 am

Oh i see, dont know. I thought it wasn't adjustable... Isn't it internally spring loaded?

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:29 am

Just replace the belt and the chirping will most likely go away, tensioner is just that a spring loaded item that is not adjustable. Either its good or its bad, but a chipping under the hood esp. when damp out is just the belt, takes longer to get the tools off the shelf than to do it

jdumont · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:43 am

Nice, thanks. Autozone has the gatorback ones for $29.00 so thats where ill be tomorrow AM

hyedipin · **Joined:** Thu May 11, 2006 10:20 am **Posts:** 1667

jdumont wrote:

Morning all, time has come to replace what I hope is my belt. I get an annoying chirp from the engine compartment normally in the AM and when its wet out. My question is this, before I replace the belt what are the chances that the idler pulley can also make that noise and only when its wet out?

How difficult is it to replace the belt? Never had to do that yet on this Jeep...
Thanks

Here is a great post with pictures by the tutorial master Corwyyn (Kevin)
http://jeepkj.com/forum/showpost.php?p= ... stcount=28

jdumont · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:18 pm

EXCELLENT!

mrkake · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:06 pm

I have an intermittent chirp as well. It only happens at idle and seems to go away after I have driven for an hour or so. When I stick my head down close, it seems to be coming from the idler pulley or the tensioning pulley. Could it be something as simple as a belt change? I am at just over 36k miles and I am sure it is the stock belt (bought the CRD when it had 22k miles on it so I am not sure what has been done to it :cry:

).

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:56 pm

It could be the belt.. I'd start by changing that since it's a cheap item to replace at ~$35.00

Of course most belts are good for 60K miles so I am wondering if this is really the underlying cause of your problem.

All of this talk about belts made me go out and swap mine today in the cold. The factory Mopar belt was streched pretty good when I compared it to the new one.

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:02 am

I have a replacement under the rear seat, but the original is going to last 100,000 miles along with the brakes!

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:26 pm

Yeah... The stock belt was in fine shape. A little dirty and worn on the "smooth" side but no noticable damage when I inspected it. I only changed it because eveyone was talking about it and I needed something to do.

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:44 pm

I'm also getting a chirping noise. Much more noticeable when cold, especially at startup. But you can still hear it all the time. Quite annoying. Belt is new, only about 12,000 miles on it. I tried spraying some belt dressing on it, didn't really help much. I'm not even sure it is the belt....could it be the tensioner going out? Belt seems in good shape.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:06 pm

Most of the time if the tensioner is going out it will make a really fast clicking noise.The last OEM tensioner started clicking only after 5000 miles of being put on,only with the A/C on though.Got a aftermarket tensioner from Dayco,no problems in the last 40,000 miles(first OEM tensioner went at 15,000 miles,the 2nd at 20,000).The tensioner is held on the engine block with one 15mm bolt,really hard to mess up.

KJ04 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:41 pm

My tensioner pulley went out this past summer with 25,000 miles on it. Had heard a chirping nosie for awhile and then the pully just froze up and threw the belt off. I was about 3 miles from a Napa and had to stop 5 times to let the engine cool down in order to get there. I also bought an idler pulley to keep in the Jeep in case that goes next.

If the the ridges on the back side of your belt don't have a bunch of cracks in them and belt dressing dosen't help, it's probably one of the pulleys making the noise.

mrkake · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:41 am

Mine comes right back whenever I slow to idle. I thoroughly inspected the belt today and I am convinced that it is one of the pulleys. The tensioner pulley looks a little corroded. As soon as I get a chance, I'll investigate further. I just need to locate and fix the noise! Anybody know what a new tensioner pulley will cost? I already bought a belt, so I might as well replace the old one. Did someone local stock your Dayco one? I know that I have bought Dayco parts from Pep Boys before. I plan on taking off the fan and shroud to do the belt and if they aren't too expensive, I will probably just replace both the tensioner and idler pulleys while I in there.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:41 pm

mrkake wrote:

Mine comes right back whenever I slow to idle. I thoroughly inspected the belt today and I am convinced that it is one of the pulleys. The tensioner pulley looks a little corroded. As soon as I get a chance, I'll investigate further. I just need to locate and fix the noise! Anybody know what a new tensioner pulley will cost? I already bought a belt, so I might as well replace the old one. Did someone local stock your Dayco one? I know that I have bought Dayco parts from Pep Boys before. I plan on taking off the fan and shroud to do the belt and if they aren't too expensive, I will probably just replace both the tensioner and idler pulleys while I in there.

The tensioner comes with the 2 idler pulley's on it.I got my Dayco tensioner from Advance Auto Parts,it was $50.

mrkake · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:25 pm

Been looking all over for a tensioner pulley assembly. No one even shows it as a special order. Does the CRD have a separate tensioner pulley and idler pulley? I need to download a service manual and get more familiar with this engine.

Belt chirp

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