300 TDi serpentine belt sqealin!

[Wello]

G'day all,

I'm asking for a little help for a new rover owner!

My serpentine belt on my Tdi 300 is driving me nuts! Bl@@dy thing wont stop sqealing. Brand new engine in my 97 Disco, purrs when idling and at lower revs, then sounds like a train wreck with the slipping belt noise once up at operating revs!

Thus far its had, new belt, new bearings in all the free spooling pulleys, new belt tensioner. CRC Belt grip shuts it up for a little while, but after a while it still sounds like its slipping somewhere. Its doing my head in!

Is this just something I have to put up with till the belt finds its "groove", annoying if it is!

The tensioner looks like it is moving slightly when the engine's running, but I am guessing this a is normal thing or it wouldn't be designed to keep tension the way it does.

Any bright ideas guys?

Cheers

[bblaze]

belt grip was the worse thing I ever put on mine. After that I replaced the belts and spent about 2 hours cleaning the pulleys with carb cleaner, a rag and a steel rule to get right in the v's. Candle wax seems to be a good option. Have also tried talc powder. Check belt alinement, tensioner condion.
cheers
blaze

[Wello]

Was kinda thinking of giving the whole thing a real good clean. Belt grip was a last ditch effort to shut it up before it went back to the mech!

Picked up today with new belt, new tensioner and alignment checked, purrs till its over 1800rpm, then it starts again! I reckon a clean and some wax on edges of pulleys might be worth a try!

[vnx205]

My belt, bearings and pulleys all appear to be in good shape, yet occasionally I get a squeal loud enough to attract the attention of onlookers.

The most successful solution I have found is talcum powder. It keeps it quiet for several months unless I wash the engine, which inevitably starts it squealing again until I give it another dose of baby powder.

[rov110]

Wello
Check the belt length (7PK 1570) for memory, there are several belts that will fit the 300tdi and they only vary in length by about 10 mm. It took 3 belts on my Defender, the first belt was to long and because it could whip about it cut the outside edges off. The second was almost right but it squealed and the third was exactly the right size and I haven't heard a peep from it.
3 belts sounds a little like the "Three Bears", it just proves that even when you buy parts from reputeable outlets you can end up with close enough is good enough. I bought a new belt from TR Spares at Padstow and got the correct one.

[CraigE]

Mine did it for ages to. My BIL told me to spray some water mist on while running. If it stops it is the belt itself, if it does not it is a bearing. A good start. As soon as I misted water on it it stopped. I thought about it for a bit and did not want to use belt grip, so I thought I would us some Lanox as it would not cause slippage. It has not squealed since.
Hope this helps.

[Jojo]

Are you sure it is the belt and not the water pump??? My water pump pulley was slightly out of alignment (due to wear???) and I did not get rid of the squealing noise until I finally replaced the water pump.

[steveG]

Mine did it for ages to. My BIL told me to spray some water mist on while running. If it stops it is the belt itself, if it does not it is a bearing. A good start. As soon as I misted water on it it stopped. I thought about it for a bit and did not want to use belt grip, so I thought I would us some Lanox as it would not cause slippage. It has not squealed since.
Hope this helps.

Thats the method I used to help track down the squealing on mine.
Mine turned out to be the tensioner - a quick spray of water on the belt instantly made it quiet which showed that it was the belt itself not another bearing.

There's a lot of posts around here on 300tdi belt chirps and squeals if you haven't already found them.

Steve

[Wello]

Thanks guys for the answers.

Jojo, its a new water pump. So that aint the problem.

I've just tried the water trick, its the belt! Just as well I got a two year old, plenty of baby powder hangin about, will give that a crack tomorrow. If that dont fix it maybe a sprinkling of graphite powder will shut it up.

Whats this Lanox stuff?

I'll post up some pics of the new truck in a few days.

[steveG]

Does the tensioner pulley seem to be running/wobbling from front to back slightly, or does it seem be run solidly with no wobble.

What I found with my tensioner was that it was slightly out of alignment, and the pulley was running at a slight angle to the belt. The pulley ran perfectly true with no wobble in it (but chirped and squealed at idle).
I put a 1mm thick washer behind the tensioner at the 9 o'clock position and the noise disappeared, and I also noticed that the tensioner pulley wobbled slightly from front-back as it run, presumably as it wasn't side-loaded any more and was able to run freely to the extent of the normal play in the bearing.

I know the symptoms I had are a bit different to yours, but its a real quick one to check/try.

Steve

[Wello]

Thanks all,

The baby powder fixed the problem.

Will post up pic of new truck soonish!

[rockley12]

On our 300 Tdi disco, we had a screaming belt and found that the top radiator hose was dripping where the hose met the connector to the thermostat housing. I don't know if a D'fer has the same set up, but the t'stat housing is not perfectly round ( it has a seem ) and so the hose could not seal properly and coolant would drip right over the belt when up to temp - only enough to annoy everyone though.

Matt