A month or so ago my truck started with an intermittent squeal when starting up, nothing major, but enough to know something was up. I checked the belt and pulleys, and other than asking a dumb question about the crank pulley, everything seemed in order. The belt had some wear, so I decided to order a new belt. The new belt is a conitech (I cannot always get the optimal things over here) if it matters. I switched out the belt, and everything is threaded the same as before, but the squeal is constant and worse. It seems like it's coming from the ACE/Power steering side. It ramps with RPM, but does go away at lower RPMs once it has warmed up, and been revved up. Google tells me there is no break-in period with belts, which leaves me in two scenarios that I can figure: 1. The new belt is just trash. 2. A pulley is going bad and I can't figure out which one.
Of note, I am supposed to make a 200km trip tomorrow with a return on Sunday. Aside from the squeal, the truck runs great.
Any suggestions on what to check? It's currently cooling down and I am thinking of swapping the belts just to see... It's -10C out so it shouldn't take long.

 

Belt squeal comes from a pulley misalignment, or from too much load presented by one of the devices, or from too little tension on the belt. A bad power steering/ACE pump, a bad alternator, a bad A/C compressor, a weak tensioner; all of these can cause your belt to squeal.
If it squeals at idle, you can use a hose or pipe to listen to different spots looking for where the squeal originates. Put the pipe to your ear and move the other end around the belt and listed for it to be the loudest. If it is loudest at the ACE pump, then you probably have some problem with ACE. If it is loudest at the alternator, then you have a charging problem, etc.

 

Thanks. I will give that a go.
My son reminded me of something probably important. When I FIRST put the belt on, everything was great. No noise on startup at all, or any other time. Then we went driving around (he is learning so he was driving) it started to squeal a bit when revving slightly to creep forward in traffic. I hadn't driven it since then (like 4 days ago) and when I started her up today and drove around is when I was having the really bad squealing issues.

 

I've done a little more digging. I found this post from Externet (https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-again-123744/) about his PAS pulley being out of alignment with the ACE pulley. So I ran a taught line from ACE to the PAS pulley, and it only touches 3 of four sides. Two on the PAS pulley and the far side on the ACE pulley, so the PAS is sticking out, roughly 3-4mm. So I am assuming this is at the very least part of my problem. Any advice on fixing this? New pump?
I also found a post from The Deputy on this thread (https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...n-cold-111635/) saying the continental belt was causing his sequel. The new belt is a continental, and the old belt squeals A TON less. So I am currently thinking I have a confluence of things making the squeal...