Hello …. I have a 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage with a 1.2 liter 3 cyl. engine. It has 37,000 miles on it.
My problem with it is a squeaky drive belt. I have had it replaced , and had the pulleys checked, everything seems fine with the pulleys. I had the tension on the belt adjusted , and I still can hear it squeak. It sounds like I have a bird under the hood and it’s very annoying.
None of this happens when the engine is cold, only after it is warmed up . What could be causing this ?
We had this same problem with a brand new Toyota 4Runner back in 2003. It was the belt tensioner. The tensioner had a weak spring.
Please make sure to use a decent belt.
I had [bad] experience with a belt bought in local part store, heavy advertised “ply-grip” belt of a widely distributed aftermarket maker (hint: 5 letters, starts with “Day”, ends with “co”).
That was complete garbage - it stretched almost immediately and started to squeak very fast, like within a month.
Upon replacement with Gates, I had years of trouble-free operations with the same tensioner.
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Might want to put a stethoscope on the alternator. Sometimes they squeak under charging loads.
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It seems the one thing not checked were the device(s) being turned by the belt. If your alternator is starting to go bad, your A/C compressor is starting to go bad, etc., one of them could be squeaking.
I think it’s time to get a second opinion from a more thorough mechanic, and if that doesn’t work, you could try, as a last ditch effort, spraying some belt dressing on the belt, but I’m betting the belt isn’t the issue here.
Ok I’ll give that a try. Thank you.
I had the belt replaced with a Gates belt. The noise stopped for about 4 or 5 days . Now it is squeaking again, so I’ll most likely bring it to a dealer to have them check the pulleys. The harmonic balancer was replaced at 9,000 miles under warranty. The vehicle
now has 37,000 miles on it. Thank you for your response.
oh the tensioner …. I never thought of that. I’ll have that checked. Thank you.