In the last 2000 miles or so, a cricket like chirp has developed in my engine bay. It's very apparent during cold startup, but dampens out and completely goes away as the car warms up. The belt is fairly new (less than 5000 miles). I'm guessing it's my tensioner, but my question is, could it be coming from anything else?

If it is my tensioner, does anybody know where i can find a new one, and how hard it is to replace? Are there any special tools required to swap it out?

The car has 83,000 miles on it.

Thanks

 

Could be (and most likely is) your tensioner but could also be pretty much anything else that the belt runs. Your best bet is to get a mechanics stethoscope and CAREFULLY probe around on different things when you first start the car to see where it is coming from. BE VERY CAREFUL!!!! It would be very easy to lose a body part since you are messing around with spinning pulleys and belts. Not to mention getting the stethoscope hung up and having it slap you upside the head or shot across the garage/driveway like a bullet.

If it is the tensioner, or pretty much anything else, you can get them at the nearest auto parts store. As for tools, you usually don't need anything special EXCEPT for a serpentine belt tool.

 

Thanks. Can I rent a mechanic's stethoscope like other specialty tools from auto parts store?

 

I've never seen one for rent but you can usually buy one for less than $20. I think I paid less than $10 for the last 2 I bought.

 

even with a new belt on within the last 5000 miles you could of picked up some debris in the belt groves.take the belt off and run a pocket screwdriver threw all the groves and reinstall it.while you have the belt off check all the pulleys for nise and slack.

 

If it were just debris though, would the squeak go away after the engine warms up?

Also, after the engine warms up just a bit (needle gets to the C on the gauge), if I put the car in gear my rpm's drop to 600 (from 800) and the squeak drastically diminishes. I think I might try replacing the tensioner just for good measure to maintain good tension ergo maintaining boost and see if that fixes it.

 

Check the idler pulley as well. They tend to go bad. An easy way to tell if its a belt noise would be to take a small dab of dielectric grease and put in on the belt, Start it up and if it is indeed a glazed belt then it should go away. If the noise persists, then you have another issue

 

I have had this problem before on my 90 Mustang and other cars. It was nearly always the belt. Especially when I bought the cheap belts at the auto parts store, and used them. Belt dressing worked to get rid of the noise for awhile, but the final solution was to buy a very good belt that cost more. Gates is my preferred brand. The cheaper belts will stretch also. Good Luck.

 

UPDATE

I'm running a gates belt right now
I have not changed out the tensioner or anything

I think the chirping noise might be coming from my ac compressor. When the engine is cold, the chirp is present no matter what, but with the a/c turned on, the chirp becomes noticably worse. With the engine fairly warmed up, the chirp goes away, but when I turn my a/c on, the chirp comes back. Do you think it has something to do with the a/c clutch maybe going bad? I had someone turn the ac on and off and watched the a/c compressor engage/disengage and the chirping noise correlated with it exactly.

If my a/c compressor is going bad, is that something hard to replace? Can i just put a new clutch in the compressor i have?

 

It could be the compressor or it could be something else (like the tensioner or idler) that squeaks when the belt has the extra load put on it when the compressor cycles. If it is the compressor clutch, you can change them but sometimes it requires special pullers to get the old one off. As far as changing the entire compressor, if you have some mechanical knowledge and tools you can do it but you will need to have your A/C system evacuated first and then recharged after you are done. Don't just crack the hoses lose without evacuating the system first. The refridgerant is under high pressure and you can be injured. Not to mention the fact that the oil in it will make a big mess and technically it's bad for the environment.