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I'm not sure which belt is making the noise but when i start my car i hear crickets and rats under the hood. It quiets down after 10 minutes of driving. But the crickets and rats are there again everytime i start it up cold.

Is it the fan belt? I'm confused what is the fan belt, alternator belt and serpentine belt or are two of the 3 the same thing? lol.

I've heard of rubbing a bar of soap on it or WD40.

Your car will only have one drive belt visible. The Serpentine belt. It drives all of the accesories, Alt. A/C Compressor, P/S pump etc. If it is making noise you should replace it. Soap or WD40 will make the noise go away but not fix the problem, it may even make the actual cause worse. If the belt breaks you will be stuck on the side of the road with no power steering and no power from the alternator.

Please replace the belt before it breaks.

And no water pump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^^^^ LoL prepare for overheating! But honestly replace that belt, dont try and patch your way around it. A tow home is more pricey than a belt..... unless you gott CAA lol

More than likely, you have a badly worn bearing on the idler pulley, belt tensioner, or another part of the serpentine and/or timing belt system. That's what it was on my wagon anyway: exact same symptoms and they all went away when the worn parts were replaced along with the belts.

Ivan MacKenzie.

If you hear it from inside the car, it could be your heater fan.

Mine sounds like the little mouse is going for a morning run in the hamster wheel until the car warms up (or until I turn off the fan.)

thanks for the info. yes i looked under the hood and only saw one visible belt. I'm not 100% sure it's that belt that is making the sound or if there is another belt (inside the parts?) that i can't see.

I checked the belt it doesn't look worn out or cracked or like its going to break anytime soon. I have 77k kms on this belt. Is that considered old and time to change?

Ford stealership told me it was gonna be about $500 (or more i think) to replace the belt.

I saw a youtube video on how to change the alternator belt and it took 5 minutes and $20-30 to buy a new belt from a local hardware store.

Any more comments?

cornflakes,Oct 21 2009, 12:00 AM Wrote:Ford stealership told me it was gonna be about $500 (or more i think) to replace the belt.
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That price most likely included the timing belt and water pump. It doesn't take more than 20 minutes to change the serp. belt.

I'm with Vinnie on this one.
The heater makes a squeal first thing in the morning.

oh i believe he said it was the timing belt now that you mention it. It was a couple months back so i couldn't remember which belt it was.

Is the timing belt the serpentine belt (the visible one in the focus) or is the timing belt inside some parts that i cant change myself?

I'd like to change the timing belt myself if it's pretty straightforward.

The timing belt is under the black cover on the side of the engine. The serpentine belt is the one you can see next to the above mentioned black cover.

If the timing belt screwed. you'll have troubles starting, and eventually, the belt will break. and the car won't go.... the serpentine belt, or the accessory belt to some, will squeal, rattle and be very rude sounding, but is very easy, relatively, to replace. You may want to repalce the idler wheel or whatevwer the thing is called at the same time. The timing belt is somewhat harder and time consuming for the Do-it-yourselfer

i m having same problem, i believe the timing belt tensioner got f!@# up and make a weird noise..
and saw cut on timing belt..

i ordered timing belt, tensioner, 2 pulleys, serpentine belt and water pump..

not sure how much labour will be..

konafocuswrc,Oct 22 2009, 01:30 PM Wrote:i m having same problem, i believe the timing belt tensioner got f!@# up and make a weird noise..
and saw cut on timing belt..

i ordered timing belt, tensioner, 2 pulleys, serpentine belt and water pump..

not sure how much labour will be..
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millions.................. :(

haha yes..millions..

LOL about an hour and a half it took me to my Belt

I kinda cheated tho I had my 3 ton mechanics jack to lift the car and a engine hoist to hold the engine up as the passenger mount was removed and the belt replaced.. while under there I also threw in a new serpentine belt as it was all open and VERY easy to do

This is is my Project cars engine BEFORE the Timing belt
(I bought the car with a Supposed BLOWN engine and they said cylinder 1-3-4 had 0 compression)



here is the after


and heres the cause :)

Dang Feral...

I've seen cracked or missing a tooth, but that's a whole set of teeth gone.

That's nuts :blink:

NefCanuck