Belts Squealing

[mrkbik]

Hey all, today I replaced my water pump, thermostat & housing, and both belts in my '94 325is. The belts look like they are sitting properly, but when I went for a drive, something started squealing in 3rd gear. It then went away when I got up into the higher rpms. It comes back randomly, sometimes it happens in first gear, sometimes it doesn't happen. Then, when I got back, I got out of the car while it was idling to listen, and it sounds like something is ticking under the hood. Anyone know what this may be?? Any help is much appreciated.

[mrkbik]

I've read a few cases about this being from one of the tensioner pulleys, but it wasn't doing this before I installed the new belts. What could I have done while I was in there to cause this?

[mrkbik]

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[NAe36]

hit the ten. pullies with some PB and see if that takes care of the problem, one of my pullies was squealing really bad and i sprayed some PB on the pulley and it went away. Im goin to have to replace it here soon.

[mrkbik]

Sorry, but what's PB?

[Blackedout325i]

I believe it's Peanut Butter it goes great with jelly, bread, and milk. They make a spray form of it now, just kidding. It's a lubricant.

[Wildo2003]

My car ticks sometimes, it's normal for some e36s though.. I forget what it was that made the ticking sound.. oil something er other..

As for the squealing, that sounds more exasperated than what I experience. During cold weather especially, and on the occasional cold start, the tensioners squeal when I turn the car on.. but that's the only time.

[Yuen]

I believe it's Peanut Butter it goes great with jelly, bread, and milk. They make a spray form of it now, just kidding. It's a lubricant.

Haha :stickoutt But seriously though - I think he means PB Blaster. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.



My car ticks sometimes, it's normal for some e36s though.. I forget what it was that made the ticking sound.. oil something er other..

The lifters?

Personally, after my mechanic sprayed some lubricant on the fan clutch, and some of it got onto the belt, it was squealing like a pig for a while. It went away after it dried off. Maybe yours will go away after awhile?

[mrkbik]

Hmm, before yesterday, there was no ticking or squealing of any kind. Then, when I was done it all started. I'm really thinking it's something I did, rather than a common e36 problem.

[CdnBimmer]

i bet its the belt itself, had this same squeal appear on my car when i had a new serpentine belt put onto my car, at first i thought it was the ten. pullies, and had that changed, but the squeal was still there then my mechanic exchanged the belt with another new belt and the squeal was gone. fortunately for me the belt was still under manufacturers warrently and i got the new belt for free. 3 months with the new belt and not a squeal!

[Jeffrie]

Next time on cold start up watch the tensioner pully, if it pulsates back in forth on idel and alot on throttle then it's dead you need a new one.
Mine died right after I changed my belts too.
Should be smooth and turn like the rest of your pullys and it's normal to move a bit with throttle although it should only move in a fluid like motion not a sudden jerky one.

[mrkbik]

So, I looked at all the pulleys and tensioners while the car was running, and I did see one pulley that was moving back and forth, and sounded like the clicking was coming from that area. It was the water pump pulley, and the reason it was moving back and forth is because my dumb ass did not tighten up the nuts on the water pump. I didn't have time to fix this before work, because I think I'm gonna have to remove the fan again to get into that space, but after work I'm going to tighten those up to see if the clicking goes away.

On another note- my belts did not squeal at all today! Is it possible that brand new belts have a sort of "break in period" before they stop squealing?