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Thread: Anyone tried Gatorback serpentine belts for Tdi300 squeals?

  1. #1
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    Anyone tried Gatorback serpentine belts for Tdi300 squeals?

    Anyone tried the Goodyear/Continental Gatorback serpentine belts in an attempt to stop the Tdi300 squealing/chirping? If you have, did it work and where did you get it...is there an Oz retailer? Have tried a few vendors but no success. Waiting on a reply from Goodyear Aust.

    Could only find one South African thread, some years old, claiming success on the Td5 and Tdi300s.

    The Tdi300 serpentine belt squeal is an often raised issue, so I'm aware of the 'change the bearings...change the parts...clean the grooves...put the shim behind the tensioner...spray on belt squeal remover...put water on the back/the ribs etc'.

    It's one vehicle that is problematic out of the four Disco 1 Tdi300 I have. Been an issue from day one ownership.

    Bought new parts. replaced bearings, swapped parts etc, but no success - this includes, but not limited to, steering pump, idler bearings, tensioner, fan clam bearing, alternator.

    One thing I've noticed is when the belt comes off the crank pulley, going to the fan pulley, it seems to have much more bounce, oscillation or slap than the other vehicles. The crank pulley does not seem out of round when observed with pulley off. When belts are off, the engine idles and revs without any noise issues or odd behaviour.

    Is there some string line method or tool that helps identify the misaligned part(s)?

  2. #2
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    I worked on a 300 tdi on the weekend that had a lot of bounce in the belt at the balancer on the drivers side.
    The tensioner was not bouncing.
    Turned out to be the bearing in the cover behind the fan.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by jboot51 View Post
    bearing in the cover behind the fan.
    ...replaced...no change unfortunately.

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  5. #5
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    I ordered a Continental belt of ebay, came today and turns out to be a Gates!
    Ahhhhh!
    Anyhow, price was still OK.
    BUT! .. I have a Gates already and it squeals, but his one has a very different rubbery compound to my Gates's and Dayco's that I've had previously.

    Smooth side feels more slippery but has a cross hatched texture. . never had them like that, always smoother.
    And the finish of that smooth side has a sparkly finish too. Again never seen that.
    Hopefully it stops the annoying squeal/squeaky/chirp I get for the first 30 mins tho.
    Arthur.

    '99 D1 300Tdi Auto
    '03 D2 Td5 Auto

  6. #6
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    mine was squealing even though the tensioner was barely 12 months old. it's the 3rd tensioner since i got the vehicle. it cost me 5 cents in the end to fix the issue. literally.

    the tensioner design is misaligned and will start chirping regardless of what you change. stick a 5 cent piece at the 9 o'clock position between the tensioner housing and where it sits on the engine. that's 9o'clock if you are standing in front of the car, so coin would be on driver's side of the tensioner.

    tighten it back up and chirp, squeal gone.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by AK83 View Post
    And the finish of that smooth side has a sparkly finish too.
    I recently received a Continental belt that also has sparkly finish on the smooth side - not seen that before - mica?. Yet to fit and try it. Also has some 'dust' along the ribs. Suspect it all may be release material to get it out of the construction mould.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fausto79 View Post
    stick a 5 cent piece at the 9 o'clock position between the tensioner housing and where it sits on the engine. that's 9o'clock if you are standing in front of the car, so coin would be on driver's side of the tensioner. tighten it back up and chirp, squeal gone.
    Maybe it works for some. I can only give my experience trying it. The squealing did stop.

    However, about 6 weeks later the bolt holding the tensioner snapped. The tensioner hit the airconpump breaking one of it's mounts and partially stripped the thread of another, and left my daughter struggling to steer the vehicle in traffic because the power steering pump now had no drive. I'm used to driving older 4x4's that did not come with power steering and so was surprised when I got hold of the D1 with no power steering how hard it was to steer - think lifting a weight that is almost beyond you - maybe you are working against oil left in the system as well as the wheels?

    The lesson I drew from this is that I believe face to face contact is required to provide friction to stop the unit moving against the block - inserting something opens the interface and leaves the bolt bearing all the stress.

    I put a new unit in and the squealing stopped. This was a different vehicle to the one subject to this thread.

    I agree with you that getting a new unit doesn't always fix the problem, as is the case with the vehicle subject to this thread.

    Anyway, enquiries seem to indicate no one stocks GatorBack belts in Oz.

  9. #9
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    I haven't tried this, but it was suggested by a local mechanic. He reckons it's the edge of the belt within the flanges of the pulleys that makes the squeal, so taking a shave off the edges with a linisher may solve it. Let us know how it goes if you try it.
    Don.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Don 130 View Post
    .... He reckons it's the edge of the belt within the flanges of the pulleys that makes the squeal, ....
    Yeah, this is what I reckon too.
    I have a 0.5 mm of play in my fan pulley bearing, my tensioner also has a bit of bounce to it too.
    Mine could be to do with this, but some strangeness with that.

    The last belt I chucked(still in good nic), but anyhow, I chucked it because for a supposedly 7Pk1580 belt, it was a smidge too long. Dayco branded.
    The issue with that was that the tensioner was close to it's most expanded position with the belt on and tensioned, and the tensioner would tap on it's bump stop .. ie. fully extended!
    The rattling bump stop noise sounded like very loud tappet rattling... couple it with a naturally loud rattly Tdi, made it a bit of an annoyance.
    I know that the belt wasn't stretched with age, only a thousand or so klms on it, and renewed with what I thought was a dud tensioner.
    it was the belt al along being a bit longer than it should have been.

    So a new belt was got(Dayco again) .. and on fitting it it was shorter by a bee's left one, gave a few more mm of clearance on the bump stop on the tensioner .. no rattle.

    But the old belt(now chucked) didn't squeal one bit .. but this new slightly shorter one does.
    Mine chirps for a while, then stops .. so not all bad.

    Both those belts were Dayco branded. I'm sure I got them both locally .. in store type locally that is.

    I'll get a pic of the cross hatch and silvery sparkle finish on the smooth face of this Gates belt.
    Probably have the chance to fit tomorrow now, and will report back.
    Arthur.

    '99 D1 300Tdi Auto
    '03 D2 Td5 Auto

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