Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold

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Thu 28 Sep 2006 21:18
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Norman77
I own a 1999 Honda Accord 2.0 LS Vtec 4 door Automatic. On starting from cold in the morning with the air conditioning or heated rear window on the drive belts squeal.

It happens for the first 10 minutes from cold
It only happens at tickover or when i pull away at junctions
It is particularly bad on damp mornings

I have replaced the following items in an attempt to cure this:

Honda drive belts (a/c and Pas)
Air con compressor
Alternator

Also it has recently had both timing and balancer belt and a Honda battery.

The belt tension has been checked 3 times (independant garage-trusted and experienced)

Any ideas folks before i go bankrupt!!!

Last thing to change is the crankshaft pulley next week

Both belts on removing them had lumps of hard plastic in the grooves-burnt belt??

Thank you

Greg
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Thu 28 Sep 2006 22:53
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - autumnboy
I don't know these models, but if it has a poly-vee type drive belt. Then is sounds as it's not tensioned enough, where you say " burn't belt".

I had a similar problem on an Escort with a Poly-vee type belt and it had to be tensioned quite high to stop it squealing for the first few minutes on startup from cold, with the load using heaters - wipers etc., re-charging the battery and power steering.



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Fri 29 Sep 2006 01:08
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Aprilia
You really mean you've replaced the alternator and a/c compressor because of this!!

Stop changing things and go back to basics. Check the belt pulley grooves are clean and free of grit and oil (clean them with brake cleaner spray and brush them out).
Then check the pulleys are all correctly aligned (use a straight-edge if necessary).
Fit brand new OE Honda belts (once a belt has slipped and burnt it tends to keep slipping).
Tension the belts correctly. They have to be tighter then you think! Follow the workshop manual which should give load/deflection figures.
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Fri 29 Sep 2006 08:02
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - jc2
A proper dealer will have a spcial tool for checking the tension which he may or may not use.
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Fri 29 Sep 2006 09:16
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - P 2501
New a/c compressor and alternator?!!

Please don't tell me you had that done at a dealer...
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Fri 29 Sep 2006 11:23
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Dave N
There's a seperate belt for a/c and alternator. So why not try it without the a/c belt first?

Ha, maybe you should just go the whole hog and put in a new engine.
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Wed 4 Oct 2006 22:21
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Norman77
No definitely not!

Used 247spares.co.uk. All from low mileage accord and cheap.

Main Honda dealer wanted £700 plus vat and fitting for the a/c compressor and £300 plus vat and fitting for the alternator. Shame they dont live in the real world.

I got both for £250 including fitting

Shame it didnt solve the problem!!

Still wait till you hear about the Cavalier i had................................another story!!

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Wed 4 Oct 2006 23:59
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - piston power
you seem to like spending money buy a brand new one with warranty so no problems or digging in your pocket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thu 5 Oct 2006 10:10
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Hamsafar
Try dripping soapy water onto each pulley with engine until the noise stops this will show you which is the noisy belt. Maybe the pulleys are so polished, that the rubber belt gets stick-slip oscillation.
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Mon 23 Oct 2006 19:25
Honda Accord Drive belt squeal from cold - Norman77
Problem is finally fixed at last!!

The old crankshaft pulley was removed. The pulley had worn widthways in each groove with massive steps at the bottom of each one. It was badly glazed and as smooth as glass so no grip.

No noise in all conditions for two weeks so fingers crossed.

Here's to another year of economic motoring.

Thanks to all.
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