Finally installed my mechman, belt squeal

[DumpinTreos 10+ year member]

Call mechman and leave a message it would be the best thing to do while waiting for the belt. He is the one who made it so he would know the most about it right?

 

[njaykaplan 10+ year member]

Wait, is it a different pulley size for your alternator? Maybe your stock belt is slightly too long, you might want to call Matt (at Mechman) and ask. You might be better off putting your stock pulley on the alternator, but i don't know how big of an alternator you got, so i don't know how big of a difference it will be in idle power. Are you able to call, being in Germany and all. Feel free to PM me and i'll call for you, if you have an instant messanger software, and ill relay it for you.

 

[Boomintempo 10+ year member]

Yeah, I've tried calling mechman a few times last week. I believe he is 6 hours behind me, so I called throughout the day during their business hours...kept getting a recording though giving me their hours and to call back during those hours. Didn't want to leave a message, because he's not going to call me back here! Haha.

The pulley for the alt is a LITTLE smaller, not by much. A fellow co-worker has an impact wrench if I wanted to put the old alternators pulley on this new one. It is just a little larger, not by much, but I am afraid of how much lower amperage the alt might put out. My car idles so freaking low. My alternator size is 200 amps.

Took the car for a test spin around town, it only squealed for about 3 seconds on startup and then quickly went away. Drove the car for about 10-15 min and no problems. No crazy squealing or anything while stopped, however I did try to keep the rpms up around 1k.

njaykaplan-I appreciate your offer. I was really hoping he'd just post a reply on here, as I've seen him post on this very forum yesterday about a dual setup he did. It's great everything seems to be working good for now. Am really waiting for my new belt to come in and see what happens with that. If the problem gets worse, then I'll give him a call again or hit you up on your offer.

 

[Boomintempo 10+ year member]

Update:

Still waiting on two belts. One from Rock Auto and one from AutoZone...Seems like time varies greatly on shipping for APO, yay.

Anyway, the car still squeals for just a few seconds on start-up. Sometimes it does it only for less than a sec, other times it does it for about 7 secs or so. It is definitely the alternator though.

I was blasting some MIA (was letting my wife listen to my car, don't hate) while driving, turned down the volume after a few min and heard the alt squealing for about 4 seconds. Obviously the battery was drained a bit from blasting, so the alt was trying to keep up. Doesn't bother me too much, seems I still need a tighter belt though to fully make the squeal go away...if that's even possible with a tighter belt.

Pretty happy with the Mechman...was really hoping there would be a zero issue with lights dimming, but it's understandable since my full current draw with just the car stereo is 240 amps and I only got a 200 amp alt. Looks like another battery will be in the future. Still though, pretty happy with the alternator. After blasting the stereo for a long period of time, both amps were cool to the touch...voltage must be staying at a decent level then, sweet!

Still undecided on how I feel about the bxi2010d and 2 12" alpine type x...in my memory, my old 2 12" punch DVC's back in '99 with my 800a2 hit just as hard on a stock electrical '93 ford tempo (lol).

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

get a shorter belt..

also, be sure it's the alt squealing..

i have a 05 civic with an EA HO Alt and mine squeals, BUT, it's not the alt.. it's my A/C compressor.. i never had and squeals or anythings when i ran my stock alt. when i swapped alts about a month after i was getting squeaking. i recently checked it and i pinpointed the noise to my A/C..

it too squeals when the engine is cold, but when the engine is warm it doesn't. just does little chirps here and there or chirps when i mash the gas.

 

[Boomintempo 10+ year member]

Yeah, not too sure if it's the alt...it definitely is something new, though, since installing the alt.

What'd you do to fix the a/c problem? Maybe I should spray the other belt with some dressing...it's strange, because once it's done squealing there aren't any chirps or squeaks or anything.

The squeal is so freaking loud though when it does, like if you're standing next to the car you need to cover your ears. Pretty embarrassing.

Let me know what you did to fix the problem! Thanks for the new thought.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

i haven't done anything as of yet.. the only way i can really control the noise is by not running the A/C when the engine is cold, OR not accelerating with the A/C on from a dead stop when the engine is cold. it only squeaks when i accelerate.

i've used belt conditioner and it would help for a day or three but would return to squeaking at some point. also sometimes after it rains it's a hit or miss and it won't squeak but eventually it does.

i have to take my car in pretty soon though to have it checked. i'm not an A/C guy.

 

[njaykaplan 10+ year member]

You don't have anywhere nearby to get a belt locally? If you ordered the original size one, and your alternator pulley is smaller, you would probably need a slightly smaller belt.

 

[Boomintempo 10+ year member]

I'll spray down the other belt today and see if that does anything. I remember when this whole issue first started, someone told me to spray the alternator belt while it's running to narrow it down...and it was the alternator belt that was causing the insanely loud squeal.

AND, just heard of a place that pretty much all the americans go to here. Still charges in euro, but heard he can get stuff quick. I'll give him a shot after these new belts come in...kinda just want to leave everything as is for now though, LOL...at least the squealing stops after 1-10 seconds, and really only squeals again if I blast my system for a long period of time...like really blast it.

 

[Skullz 10+ year member]

You just dont have enough bite on the belt around the pulley, looks like you might have 30% contact. your going to need a bracket made to wrap more of the belt around the pulley so it can grab and hold it tightly so you dont ruin your new alts bearing from over tightning it. The more surface area your belt and pulley have with each other the less chance it has of slipping, so if you have some guys that can help ya make a bracket with some nice size bearings on it your good to go and then you can loosen that belt a bit.

Hope that helps ya out

 

[DumpinTreos 10+ year member]

Apparently Honda Accord have shitty belt wrap if the shorter belt doesn't fix it theres only a couple things you can do is either get a larger pulley from Mechman (Lowers your idle amps) or do what Skullz says and have someone fabricate some kind of idler pulley.

 

[Boomintempo 10+ year member]

NO MORE BELT SQUEAL FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

Ordered new belts, made sure to get a gatorback belt (made by goodyear) and all is good. Took forever for the belt to come in, but man it's nice to start the car now without worrying about waking up the neighborhood on my way to work!

This belt feels like it's just as tight as the other one, but obviously it's tighter or has a better grip.

It feels so nice not having to worry about my stupid belt squealing anymore...squealing on startup, squealing if my RPMS get too low, squealing when I hand the gate guard my ID...

Ahhhhhh, sigh of relief. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif