I have a relatively new account, but I’ve been lurking for a while. I’m getting a chirping noise that doesn’t quite seem to match what I’ve been able to find on the forums so far, but before I describe what’s going on and why I can’t pinpoint the problem, it might help if I give you guys a background of the last 1,800 miles and road blocks regarding the car. Who knows maybe something is connected
I bought an ’03 Bean with 145125 on the odo from a service station that changed pilots. The car was his wife’s daily driver and was very well maintained. I bought the car for less than half that kbb (perfect because I’m new and regular work has been missed) due to the time constraints associated with changing service stations, I took the local dealer to do a full diagnostic, it was done new shoes (tyres), alignment, inspections yadda yadda. Fast forward a week and I decide to take the car over Thanksgiving weekend and make the 1,800 mile round trip from Virginia to Missouri. 400 miles into the trip I get the death shake from **** in the blue ridge mountains; the tire shop did not balance the wheels properly and i put 3 oz worth of weights on one side. I go to the nearest shop the next morning and balance it only to lose weight again. I go for a re-balancing a total of 4 times before another sub owner makes it right, but the tire problems are still not completely fixed. Yesterday after spending all night before brainstorming, I realized that my tires were overinflated, 6kg over the tire specs. and 20 lbs on the subaru pepper. Needless to say, I’m wild. After deflating the tires to 32/31, the ride has smoothed out and she drives well, but I’m worried something else broke in the process.
While all this is going on I develop a squealing noise in the front end and after removing the engine cover and belt cover (also pressing a finger on the v-belt and a/c pulley as it moves… OW ! ), I find that the chirping seems to come from the idler pulley, the one that contacts the flat side of the belt and sits dead center. I spray some water on the belt and the squeak goes away only to return once the water starts to dry. The belt looks brand new and I can see a slight wobble in the idler pulley while the engine is running and the chirping seems to relate to the position of the shaft in its rotation almost as if the belt is slipping into place. The belt will only chirp after it has rained, on very humid days like today, or on hotter days. I have not had chirps in the cold. Could this be due to belt expansion and contraction? The roll looks very shiny and the back of the strap is also quite smooth, could this be a normal tweeter?
Any suggestions and fixes I can do myself are greatly appreciated. Otherwise I’ll have to wait until I get paid again, which is totally out of order until I get a full-time job. Hopefully if she needs to go to the dealer then I won’t be doing any damage between now and then.
