I am trying to eliminate a belt squeel on my 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan. I have the 3.0L v6, most of the guides and info I am finding seem to relate to the 3.3 or 3.8L so I wasn't sure how different the motor layout was.

Anyway, I have an annoying squeel, you can hear it when you start the van, but it gets louder as you accelerate. I was going to replace the belts, but I wasn't sure if I should look into other sources of the noise first?

I am somewhat handy with cars, but belts and pulleys aren't something I have a ton of experience with.

So where do I start, should I try checking the tension first, or just start putting new belts on? I don't want to ruin a new belt if something else is wrong.

 

Make sure your tensioner is good.

 

How do I check if it's good or bad? The tensioner is only $80, is it something I can replace myself?

 

Take a look at the tensioner while the engine is running. Is it bouncing around? Perhaps give the engine a few revs while looking at as well.

The hardest part about replacing a belt tensioner is actually getting to it, so it really depends.

 

I took a look, and I am not exactly positive which one is the tensioner. The idle pulley looks like it's bad though, there are weird marks on it like it was seizing up or something and has burn marks from the belt. I took a quick video, I don't know if this will help:


The pulley on top I suspect is causing some of the noise, I don't know if I should tighten it more, or how tight that nut should be?

 

The pulley directly behind the idler here: is the tensioner.

Check the tension on the AC belt.
The pulleys all look to be running true from what I can see in the video, making me think either something isn't tight enough (like AC belt tension) or you have something locking up (alternator, PS pump, AC). If none of those are the case, it may be a bad water pump, which will require more in depth digging.

 

Thanks for the reply. So the one front/under the alternator is the tensioner, is that right? A few inches behind that idler pulley?

How do I check the tension on the AC belt tension? The water pump seems to work fine, I live in AZ and have never overheated. The A/C runs pretty well but I can feel a strain on the motor when I run the A/C. The power steering does go out from time to time, I will be mid turn and all the sudden it's hard to turn, then back to normal.

How tight should the nut be on the idler pulley? All the way or allow for a little movement?

 

The power steering coming and going tells me either the pump is bad or your belt is slipping.
http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znet...15-544/2.image
The idler is middle right, tensioner is middle left.
The idler should be tight, the pulley itself rides on a bearing, so it should spin free even when torqued down.

 

Thanks for the image, that makes sense seeing the diagram. Would a bad power steering pump cause belt squeel? The belts are somewhat dry and cracked, would replacing the belts be a good first step?

 

If the power steering pump is putting excessive load on the belt, yes it can cause it to squeal.
I would start by changing the belt as a dry/cracked belt can cause it to slip, which can also be causing your loss of power steering.
So I'd start with a new belt and go from there.