Rep Power: 0

My 03 civic ex has been squealing intermittently for awhile, I haven't had the funds to fix it until recently. It has about 150k+ on it so I know it's long overdue for a belt change. Last time I started it, it squealed and I smelled this rubbery smell in the cabin and so I turned it off, figured it needed new belts, went to amazon and bought some gates p/s,ac belt and the alternator belt. So today I started the car for the first time in 5 days, I sprayed some belt dressing on the belts first because last time the noise was horrid. I start it and the sound was louder than before with the dressing on it and now with the hood up I saw smoke coming from the belts and that rubber smell again. I turned it off. I got my tools out and starting to work on it. I got the three main bolts off needed to lower the p/s pump and thus get the p/s,ac belt off, I took pictures to show what they look like. Surprisingly the belt didn't think they looked bad, but i'll let you all be the judge. I went to spin the p/s pulley and it was fine. freely moved. I couldn't reach to move the ac pulley. So now I am left scratching my head with what it could be? Maybe a seized ac pulley? maybe the smoke was coming from the burning off belt dressing? or maybe it was coming from the alternator belt slipping, which I have not inspected yet. Or maybe a seized bearing in the alternator?

What do you guys think?

I've attached pictures of the p/s, ac belt.
Going to borrow jacks and a jack lift to be able to get the alt belt off and possibly the alt altogether.

Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 519

Spin alternator pulley. Spin AC pulley. Are they spinnable? Not real noisy when you spin them?

Clean off every bit of belt dressing from the pulleys, that crap just ruins belts. If it's already on new belts you may not be able to get it all cleaned.

Squeal is loose belts 99% of the time, it's the alternator load that causes the noise (slippage of whatever belt is running the alternator).

Smoke could be from the belt slippage or the dressing. Or both. Get it all cleaned out.




If it needed those belts, how about that timing belt? When was it last changed?

 
Rep Power: 178

When the belts are squealing make sure the ac and defroster are turned off and see if it stops. If your AC clutch is slipping it will burn it up in a heartbeat and will also put out smell and smoke. Just something else to check.

 
Rep Power: 0

This I am curious about. How is the alternator "load" causing the noise? Like the amount of turns the alternator bearing needs to run? I don't quite understand that statement. Also, when I went to start it, it was struggling hard like it took 5 second to start up completely and the dash was dimming low to high until it started. It was rather cold (30ºF) and I hadn't started it in 5 days so maybe that contributed to it.

The timing belt has never been changed as far as I know. Got this car at 130k+ and it's not at 150k+

Thank you

 
Rep Power: 519

Load = work = creating electricity

The alternator works hardest immediately after starting the engine, it has to recharge the battery and carry the rest of the cars electrical load.
The belt has to spin the alternator pulley in order for it to generate electricity.
The more the alternator has to generate electricity, the harder it is to spin its pulley.
If the belt isn't adjusted tight enough to prevent slippage during maximum charging, it slips and squeals.

Kinda like skidding a tire or spinning a tire. If you have traction you don't have squeal. If you spin or skid you lost traction and you get squeal.



Timing belt replacement interval is 7 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. You're on borrowed time and it could cost you an engine if it lets go.

 
Rep Power: 0

I see so the load is the amount of turns it needs or "work" it needs to do to carry the electricity to the battery and when it starts up that's when it needs to "work" the most. For the belt slipping, the slipping part, is that caused from being too loose or tight or from the belt being worn with cracks and such? Because if the belt is still good then wouldn't I just have to use the adjusting bolt to the belts to fix it?

I need a new head gasket, like I mentioned in the thread about 7th gens gasket issue. I would prefer to do all the work myself, change the head gasket, along with the timing belt and water pump. But boy oh boy does it seem deep in the toolbox. And reading from what others have said on here about their repair jobs, it's not encouraging. Sounds like they've had to do it over again. I cannot imagine the hell of try and fix something as complex as the gasket only to find it hasn't been fixed correctly. I am stubborn and I refuse to go to mechanics, been burned too many times and taken advantage of.

 
Rep Power: 0

My 2005 civic LX have a LOUD squealing noise and gets more annoying when the A/C is turned on. Did all the usual suspects changed both belts, checked A/C clutch bearing A/C and radiator fans, checked the alternator and cleaned all the pulleys too but the culprit was the alternator PULLEY (replaced the alternator 3 months ago) was about 1/16" inward toward the engine. I saw a video using a laser to check the alignment but that's a $100+ (dayco brand) so I just used my cheap laser leveler and with a steady hand to see which pulley is not align using the crankshaft pulley's 2nd ridge as reference. Looking at the alternator mounting I decided to push alternator sleeve washer forward and add a same thickness washer at the other end (photo should explain it better) to move the pulley 1/16" forward.

 
Rep Power: 519

Is it possible the rebuilder installed the alternator pulley backwards?