Just wanted to share my joy with everyone. I finally fixed the annoying squeal on my bugeye yesterday after almost 3 months by changing out the power steering/alternator and A/C belts. The PS/Alt belt was pretty messed up. On some sections of it, 3 of 5 ridges were gone. Some pieces of it was stuck to the pulleys and I had to scrape it off with a toothpick. All the noise is now gone and my car sounds normal again.





The end.

 

That's great to here. Wouldthe squeaking get worse when you would turn the wheel? I'm changing my belts tomorrow(:

 

+1

But I'm getting a new motor on Feb 11 so I'll have to wait untill then.

 

Oh god, the sound of squealing belts is one of the worst noises EVER.


My old car did it when it was cold out... OMG, so embarrassing especially when you're on a date and your car sounds like a cat crawled into the engine and started screaming as loud as possible.

Congrats, I know what a relief that is.

 

I don't remember turning the wheel while the car was idle and I usually don't hear it as well when the car is driving. But for sure, the squeaking got worse over time.

Changing the belts was extremely simple. Just make sure you don't over tighten the belts. They should have about 7-9mm of movement when you poke at it on the longest length (where the two belts makes an X).

 

Exactly! It's such a simple fix...yet...so much satisfaction came out of it.

 

I need to do this as well. Dunno if it's my ps pump or if I just need to flush the fluid, but it's a loud annoying whine.

 

What kind of sound. I moved my ps pump and put it back, retightened the belt, but not sure how tight it was supposed to be and now I have a pretty loud hum coming from that area. Could it be a tight belt maybe?

 

Yes snowflow. You have probably over tightened the belt. loosen it up and see of the noise goes away. It should.

side note on our powersteering. DO NOT ADD POWERSTEERING FLUID TO OUR SYSTEMS. Our PS takes ATF.

 

I'm gonna try that in the morning. I'm pretty sure its the issue because it gets louder when I try to turn the wheel at a stop. I know it's not the pump itself and the only thing I messed with was the belt tension which I wasn't sure how tight to make it.

 

From what I've researched, it's REALLY bad to over tighten the belts. It can potentially wear down your pulleys which will lead to more expensive things to fix. The specs from the service manual that I found say that on the belt's longest run, there should be around a third of an inch (or 7-9mm) of flex when you poke at it.

Also, you can inspect the ridges on the belts with a flashlight before you remove anything.

Hope this helps.

 

the rubber becoming hard and brittle is what causes it to squeal most times. An easy way to tell is to CAREFULLY rub a bar of soap on the inside of the belt with the engine running. if the squeal goes away you found your problem.

 

The belt was fine, but overtight. I set it to spec, but the sound remained. Turns out it was the power steering pump going out. Would ten minutes or so of tight belt cause the pump to go out? Or could it be more likely that it was just the last straw after a couple years of heavy aggressive big wheels and rallyx?

 

You said that you moved your power steering pump when you did your manifold. Did you disconect the lines to the pump when you did this? what I'm trying to get at is did the pump loose the fluid or get turned upside down allowing the fluid to drain out? When this happens you need to prime the pump with fluid before cranking the car. If it was howling from being empty of fluid then cavitated the resivior then yeah the pump is toast.

Does it howl when your turning the wheel?

 

I didn't unhook the lines, but tilted it sideways out of the way...almost upside down I guess. I just turned the key and waited for the fuel pump to finish priming, then just started it. Ran for about ten minutes to warm up the motor, then I held it at 2-3k rpms to burp the coolant. And yes, it gets louder when I turn the wheels.

My tech told me that its the pump for sure and that the stock ones are garbage anyway.