Ok sooo new issue. I told ny father i heard a very subtle squeaking in my engine bay a couple days ago. He told me i was crazy and didnt hear anything. Well today i could look at him and say haha im not crazy. Well not completely lol. So anyways i found that its either 1. The serpentine belt or 2. The serpentine belt tensioner. So since they sell both the pulley and the tensioner seperate today i bought just the pulley alont with the belt. Im going to change the belt first but in case that doesnt fix it My question is how the hell do i get the pulley seperated from the tensioner? I know i need to move the coolant resovoir but how do i loosen the pulley center bolt. I have my own set of air tools so thats fine. I just need info for it. Should i try to muscle it off? Since i know id have to release the tension and go farther and it could snap off and well that would be a bad day. Or should i use an air ratchet to try and get it off or should i use and impact gun to try and get it off? Any ideas?

 

Its simple. Just did mine two days ago. Take the belt off then turn the bolt clockwise to loosen it (its just reverse threaded). Make sure the pulley fits with the washer you have (our cars aprently came with the very different kinds of pulleys)

Do NOT use an impact wrench! I say again. It is reverse threaded. Turning the bolt clockwise (righty-loosey) will loosen it. All you need is a wrench. Preferable a socket wrench.

 

Also, before messing around with it all, pop the belt off and spin the pulleys by hand. Typically if one is making noise, you will feel a problem in the pulley travel, play in the pulley or even a low speed might reveal an issue.

If you have a 3800, a missing or damaged o-ring around the PCV has been known to sound like a failing alternator (as it's so close to the alt).

 

Alright cool now that i know its reverse threaded that will be easier to do. Where are the o-rings? Do you mean the o ring on the coolant elbows? If you do ive already changed thise and the elbows thenselves.

 

I think it might just be the belt because we sprayed it with belt degreaser and the noise went away but as soon as the spray wore off the squeal came back. Im going to change the belt first to check if that fixes it and if not then ill try the pulley.

 

The pcv valve is that thing next to the upper intake manifold on the passenger side. Has three wires coming out of it. I also just removed and will replace that (jason, The_Maniac, just finished helping me trouble shoot my engine noise)

 

Ok well i took off the belt and its not that. I spun the pulley and i hear the squeaking so i took it off and sure enough its squeaking from the bearing too. My fathers picking up the parts so im going to replace the pulley and the belt too. Thanks guys!

 

Make sure its the right pulley. You have to compare them. We have two different possible pulley configurations and mine wasn't available at orieleys.

 

Id personally change the whole tensioner. Ive had bad results changing just the pulley

 

Pulley=$20
Assembly=$120

I went with just the pulley cause the tensioner was fine.