Hey everyone, hoping for just some general experiences you may have had with you truck or thoughts about my problem. Any input is appreciated. I have a 1999 5 sp. 4x4 3.9 Dakota Sport with something like 132,000 miles. I bought it just about two years ago with 105,000 (I drive back and forth from college to home a lot, 300+ mile trip). I have gone through 3 serpentine belts due to squealing problems coming from under the hood, mainly when it has been raining or snowing but it came and went. My dad said he just got the belt replaced again about 3,000 miles ago when I was out of the country for while but now it wont stop squealing. I cant figure out where its coming from but it seems to get louder when i hit the clutch and am idling. Could that be a throwout bearing? How much would that cost to fix? It seems to drive alright but it sounds like something is wrong with the engine and i dont have $100 bucks for a shop up here to take a look at it.

 

If your belt is squealing and wearing out quickly then you most likely either have a bad belt tensioner pully or an idler pully. Both are fairly cheap to replace. The tensioner can be a bit of a bear to change for the backyard mechanic though...I found that out the hard way.[sm=headbang.gif]

 

yah as stated above i had the squeal problem last summer on my 2wd v6. turned out to be a bad water pump pully.. wasn't leak'n but the pully had too much back and forth play in it and the belt would make noise... however i agree with the last reply.. its probably your tensioner... its not rocket science to change by any means however its just the area its in is hard to get at the bolts.

good luck tho.

 

mine is doing it too, it started after i had to replace my intake manifold. I figured I may as well change the belt since i already had it off. I got the NAPA brand and I think that was a mistake. Ever since then it has squeeled and its driving me nuts. The belt is so damn expensive too, thats why I havent changed it yet. I think next time i'm going to order the OEM belt from a dealer since I have heard that the cheap ones tend to squeel. now if i could get that fixed and stop my truck from eating TPS sensors it'll be fine.

 

I bought a napa belt, 80 bucks later... mine squeals, but only when I start it up. I need to fix my crank wheel. It's wobbly lol. (I was too lazy to do it properly... )

But it does squeal for like 10 seconds at start up than it's fine...

 

Thanks a lot for all the feedback. I'm assuming its a pulley after looking at it again and hearing everyones input. I've had this problem since I bought the truck but its gotten really bad lately. Looks like I'll have to take it to a shop up here at school and see what they will charge me for it. Thanks again

 

i like the OEM belt, only 90,000 miles on mine , sad to say but its true

 

Any ideas for cost of labor and parts on an idler pulley? I'd be assuming in the end I'll pay close to $200 anywhere I go but wanted to see if anyone had an idea before i brought it in this afternoon, the shops up here tend to be quite expensive for poor work. I'd try to do it myself but no where to work up here at college. One more reason I can't wait to graduate

 

Not sure what a shop will charge but I just bought an idler pulley and tensioner for under $150 through autozone (plus the price of a new belt). The shop I talked to was going to charge me around $130 or so for labor to put them both on. The idler pulley is the easier of the two since it's oly held on by one bolt that is easy to get to. Honestly if it was the only one I had to replace I could do it in the driveway in about 15-20 minutes. The tensioner takes a bit more effort but for a shop it shouldn't take more than an hour if that long. The prices I gave are rough estimates... since I don't have the receipts in front of me... but I know they are close.