Squealing After Timing Belt Replacement

[Heals]

Just had my timing belt done 1k ago, after the first 500 miles or so there is a significant squealing sound. I'm planning on taking it back to the mechanic in the next few days, but it'd be nice to have an idea of what it could possibly be before hand. Tensioner? Faulty Bearing? The ECS Gates Racing Ultimate parts kit was used.

[Timtheguru]

Hopefully just the accessory belt or tensioner, but could be any of the moving parts, including the water pump.

[Hyphy]

that's 4 threads within the 6 months that i've read with problems from the ecs kit.

[getslideways]

does the squealing start or stop if you turn on or off the Air Conditioning pump via "ECON" button on the climate control?

The accessory belt and the accessory belt tensioner would be the first place i would check

[Heals]

It doesn't change whether the AC is on or off. The noise more or less stops once warmed up, should I still be concerned?

[bps4]

Check serpintine belt and tensioner like get sideways suggested

[///BlueS4]

I had the same problem but with zero miles it m.ade the noise and it turned out being the serpentine tensioner. Bought my kit from Blauparts. Tensioner was free but was pissed it broke and shredded up my brand new serpentine belt. Had no luck getting a hold of them either to replace those two parts either.

[Vinchenzo51]

We just did a t-belt on my buddies S4, same thing, horrible squeeling. Turned out the OEM serpentine belt was slightly shorter than the new one and that was causing the noise. We put the OEM serpentine belt on and it was fine.

[mikko p]

We have two similar cases here in Finland also.Was due to Gates Racing blue belt.

[killerkali]

We have two similar cases here in Finland also.Was due to Gates Racing blue belt.

I just installed my fcp kit, as well with the blue gates belt. Im experiencing a squeaking near the top of the belt as well. Any reason to be concerned, goes away once warm..

[hcaudikeed]

Same here..... in for results. I've had way too many issues with this build for something else to pop up. Squeals when cold started, goes away once warmed up. Haven't checked into whether it's the serpentine or timing belt.

P.S. I have the Ultimate Plus TB kit from ECS with the Gates Racing TB, Continental Serp. belt.

[themadscientist]

Is the racing belt a kevlar belt?

[hcaudikeed]

Is the racing belt a kevlar belt?

Yes.

[ALE81]

I have Gates Racing Blue from FCP, squeaks. The squeak usually goes away once warm, sometimes it comes back randomly. Hate it. I will be going with OEM in the future. I believe the common factor here is, the Gates Racing belt.

[mikko p]

Yes the squealing sound disappeared with OEM timing belt.

[Jmills]

Something to note is that Kevlar will not expand as much as the OEM Belt, putting more pressure on the tensioners and such. Might be the cause of some/most of these issues.

[Jsmooth65]

I have a Gates racing belt, and yes it squeeks when cold.

[hcaudikeed]

So is it safe to assume that service life on oem tensioners will be shorter than factory specified intervals?

[Scotty@Advanced]

Something to note is that Kevlar will not expand as much as the OEM Belt, putting more pressure on the tensioners and such. Might be the cause of some/most of these issues.

The belt does not control the amount of tension on the pulleys, the tensioner does. The squealing is likely the rubber material is a bit harder or has different friction properties than the stock belt. As it heats up it gets softer.

[Vinchenzo51]

The belt does not control the amount of tension on the pulleys, the tensioner does. The squealing is likely the rubber material is a bit harder or has different friction properties than the stock belt. As it heats up it gets softer.

Ding Ding!

[themadscientist]

Yes.

Then that explains it. I've ran into this on other vehicles with Kevlar belts. Just seems to come with the territory. Let's chalk it up to a "because racecar".

[Heals]

The squealing is likely the rubber material is a bit harder or has different friction properties than the stock belt. As it heats up it gets softer.

Makes sense. Should be safe not getting too concerned by it, time will tell whether it only happens during winter. Thanks all!

[DynomiteTT]

Same noise here with Gates Timing belt. Only on cold starts and goes away after a few minutes of driving.

[killerkali]

Glad to hear im not the only one ! Terrible to finish my whole TB job and start it up to hear that lol :(

[JavS4]

I am glad I read this thread. I have the same anoying squeal on cold starts with the Gates racing belt. It is good to know that it might not be anything to be concern about.

[Alejandro__]

I was one of the guys who was hearing bad sounds after my ECS TB job.
This morning I went in there again with a new serpentine tensioner and a new fan.

What my car sounded like this morning at 9am
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...P-WrbiszsTwrAE

What my car sounds like now.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...P-WrbiszsTwrAE

So the problem (for me anyway) was that I ruined my old tensioner while I had it out. When cleaning it up, I must have damaged it. I still heard some quiet chirps when I first started it up, but they went away shortly after. My guess is that's the 'because race car' sound of the gates Kevlar belt.

[The_Auto_Tech]

I had the same problem. The first squeal was the tensioner roller bearing going bad that I got from ECS. I've still got a squeak, but am using the Gates Racing belt as well. Goes away once warm. We've seen the same thing with the 2.0 FSI engines at work.

[julex]

ah, thank god for this thread. I noticed very slight squeal, if I could even call it that, from general front-top of engine area which wasn't there before engine build with same exact accessories attached but the blue belt on cold start up today.

I normally keep my car in garage which is about 50deg on coldest nights but today I kept it outside at 20deg and I head the slight squealing/chirping and got concerned like hell about it.

Cheers.

[uponone nogaro]

im glad my 034 gates timing belt kit dont squeal

[julex]

wait for it . They don't start squealing right away and they seem to do it based on ambient temp. When it was 20F out it was squealing like a nest of birds but now with 40F+ almost nothing. So if you're in CA... you probably won't have the problem at all.

[uponone nogaro]

yea i hope not

[LakeTahoeQuattr]

I put the gates belt on two months ago and has squeaked ever since. It drives me nuts! I am glad this was a common problem, I will try OEM belt this week.

Question: Has anyone noticed the belt stop squeaking after 6 months or so, or can we assume it will always squeak?

[LINDW4LL]

Monty23 has the Gates belt and put baby powder on it... seems to have helped.




More info here: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...lt-Noise-FIXED

[windynips]

Bump. My car squeaks too. Gates belt from ecs. Any fixes besides an oem belt.

[LakeTahoeQuattr]

I did the baby powder trick for 8 months. It only work for 1 week at a time. I finally just put on the conti belt and problem solved. Pressure washed all the baby powder crap off the front. It was a real mess. I hate that gates belt.

[windynips]

Damn, i figured the baby powder was a bad idea to do. LOL grimy clean up. looks like ill be doing ANOTHER timing job.

[james 408]

bottom line belt squeeling is a result of something rubbing that shouldn't. it can be minor enough (like i suspect the gates belt is only an issue before it expands and gets up to temp or something); but with stock parts it should not squeek.

[Alejandro__]

Update from me... I eventually went in there and took out the kevlar bet. I had a secondary issue where I ruined my tensioner pulley but that wasn't the main issue.
True, the squeal goes away once the belt warms up, but for the first 5 minutes of the drive it sounds like you're driving a jalopy. Sagastic gear head neighbor giving you the "sounds like you've got a loose fan belt there my boy!" and you say "because race car" but he doesn't get it. Its a pain going all the way in there again but for me it turned out to be a good thing since I had a bunch of 'pink lava' that I hadn't noticed (bad seal with my water pump) and redid the valve gasket on my drivers side.

Plus you get that repetition repetition repetition and learned that I did it the hard way the first time. I used the cam lock bar/pin the second time and i'm now a believer.

go team.

[Tec_Nine]

My gates belt squeaks when cold as well, goes away after a few min so it don't bother me none. I believe it's one of the reasons my motor is still whole after briefly shifting from third down to second accidentally. Thought my motor would be shot for sure but thankfully it's still running strong.

[djinfiniTeeQ]

LMFAO @ "because race car."

Been struggling wondering what the fucking sound of "locusts" was at startup for the last 6 months or so-assumed it was acc tensioner or bad roller and after pulling the serp belt and starting it up last weekend to hear same problem started worrying bad cam chain tensioners or something, but now I know what it is=Gates.