Squeaky Auxillary Belt

[Guest phil1]

Hello!!!

 

I have recently had my Cam belt replaced on my 2001 Citroen Xantia 1.8 16v, 62K on the clock. With this the Citroen "specialist" also replaced my auxillary belt. After a few days or so of the work being completed the auxillary belt started to make a screachy type noise for the first few minutes of the car being started and would eventually stop once the car had been running for a while. Anyway, I took the car back to the "specialist" only to find that he had put the wrong size auxillary belt on the car! Although concerned by this I was happy that my car was now scream free - or so I thought!! The noise has now come back, he assures me the right size belt is now on, but is going to take another look at it next week, is there anything that I can recommend to him that could be the problem, cos by what he said to me on the telephone it seems like he hasn't got a clue what step to take next. I'm particularly frustrated with this because the car was screech & scream free until I took it in for the cam belt replacement.

 

Phil

 

P.S. Sorry for the essay

[Ronin]

Hello!!!

 

I have recently had my Cam belt replaced on my 2001 Citroen Xantia 1.8 16v, 62K on the clock. With this the Citroen "specialist" also replaced my auxillary belt. After a few days or so of the work being completed the auxillary belt started to make a screachy type noise for the first few minutes of the car being started and would eventually stop once the car had been running for a while. Anyway, I took the car back to the "specialist" only to find that he had put the wrong size auxillary belt on the car! Although concerned by this I was happy that my car was now scream free - or so I thought!! The noise has now come back, he assures me the right size belt is now on, but is going to take another look at it next week, is there anything that I can recommend to him that could be the problem, cos by what he said to me on the telephone it seems like he hasn't got a clue what step to take next. I'm particularly frustrated with this because the car was screech & scream free until I took it in for the cam belt replacement.

 

Phil

 

P.S. Sorry for the essay

[Ronin]

Hello!!!

 

I have recently had my Cam belt replaced on my 2001 Citroen Xantia 1.8 16v, 62K on the clock. With this the Citroen "specialist" also replaced my auxillary belt. After a few days or so of the work being completed the auxillary belt started to make a screachy type noise for the first few minutes of the car being started and would eventually stop once the car had been running for a while. Anyway, I took the car back to the "specialist" only to find that he had put the wrong size auxillary belt on the car! Although concerned by this I was happy that my car was now scream free - or so I thought!! The noise has now come back, he assures me the right size belt is now on, but is going to take another look at it next week, is there anything that I can recommend to him that could be the problem, cos by what he said to me on the telephone it seems like he hasn't got a clue what step to take next. I'm particularly frustrated with this because the car was screech & scream free until I took it in for the cam belt replacement.

 

Phil

 

P.S. Sorry for the essay

[/quote

 

Check the pulley bolts itself Phil, they can often work loose causing a wobble. check it for dents etc. A cure that I used before was some candle wax on the edges of the belt, the new belts can be quite rough on the edges until it wears in properly, the wax just helps this along. Check not just the length of the belt but also the width too. If it's too wide the belt will bevel in the middle and cause a screech, too narrow it will move from one side too the other, again causing the screech. Failing that , it could be the bearing inside the pulley housing although i'm not sure its a weakness on xantia's, I know it can be a problem on other makes.

One last thing, if he did put the wrong belt on it could have caused the pulley to widen a bit more, I don't think it would happen but I know ford bottom pulleys are soft and don't take much to go out of shape.

Ask him to put a timing gun on the belt and pulley, this will show anything out of "true" that the naked eye won't see.

[Guest phil1]

Thankyou very much for the response, I will give some of those things a try.

[streaky]

another cause can be the belt tensioner itself. have known this be the case on peugeot's that use the same type of engine.

 

and costly as it may be pattern belts can be out of true so find its just as easy to fit a genuine belt for the car which saves money in the long run.