3 belts, 1 idiot, and 1200 miles later im back to what i should have done in the first place

noticed a squeak/squeal from accessory drive area under the hood, i replaced the belt first, it was kinda old, noticed alternator was also making noise and the tensioner pulley didnt spin smoothly during the change.

warrantied the alternator (woo hoo! ), bought a new oe belt tensioner (not that much more expensive than just the pulley)

still making noise, parts counter guy didnt believe me that it was the belt (and said they dont make noise when they are bad, this is the idiot part) squealing until i told him i replaced the other 2 thing...warrantied that belt

1,200 miles later the new belt starts making noise again...mind you if was perfectly quiet up until this point....got fed up with dayco....2 bad belts in a row

ordered a gates belt from rockauto....this is the part i should have done from the start

here are some pictures of the belt

most of it looks like this



and then here's this little guy



it is worse in person but i think you can see the spot where its chewed up a little

avoid dayco belts they are junk

 

I think your problem lies elsewhere, not in the belt. Many times a belt is not the reason for squeaking. Bad pulley bearings, the pulley itself, oil or other fluids on the belt/pulley or misalignment are much more common. Yes, the belt itself can be the problem and it's totally possible that you got a bad belt, but you can't call a company junk just because you had bad luck.

I have a Dayco belt on both my Jeep and Camaro with no squeaks. Everything on the Jeep is original with 250k+ miles on it, less the alternator and belt, and lots of dirt and mud. The only reason I am defending Dayco, and please don't take it the wrong way, is because I see this all the time at work. People buy a product, have one bad experience with it, and automatically knock it.

 

i also have a dayco belt on the camaro, never had a problem with it.

 

You make some good points, and maybe I jumped to trashing dayco a little quick. Time will tell if it was just another bad belt or if there is something else going on.

 

I will agree with you that the counter person was idiotic for saying that belts don't squeak. They do. Just usually it's caused by something else. Any chance you could get an up close of that second pic? It was hard to see exactly what I was looking at. But it almost looked as if that area of the belt was melted or scorched.

Another reason I don't jump right on the belt, Dayco and Gates use the same material in their serpentine belts, EPDM and I'm sure they're both made over seas, though I may be wrong.

 

Unfortunately I've already tossed the belt, but I'll try to describe it as best I can.

Every belt I've ever replaced was nice and smooth when it came off, the belt in the picture was very rough in that one spot on the belt. And the ribs were not as well defined as the the rest of the belt.

Not sure what that means or what would cause just that one spot to appear that way, I would say the spot was only a few inches long, somewhere between 2-4 inches.

Hope that helps.

 

I understand what the "idiot" counter guy was saying. "My new belt is making noise, so it's bad" is like saying "my new exhaust makes an after-fire noise, so it must be bad". Disclaimer: I'm talking a stock exhaust, not one that's supposed to be noisy!
The noises are generally the effect, not the cause, which, as mentioned, could be a misaligned pulley, one that's trying to lock up, or even spilled coolant on the pulleys. Yes the Gates is a superior (EPDM) belt, wasn't aware the Dayco was too. In all fairness, you'll have to do a time tested follow up review to see how the Gates belt holds up.

 

I plan on it. The dayco belt started making noise around 1200 miles so I'll check back in around that time with the gates belt.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe I hadn't run my AC compressor in a while and it was a little stuck so when I turned it on the belt grabbed real hard and caused that bit of damage to the belt. Don't know if that makes sense or not.

 

Belt quality isn't the issue here. Look at your pullies and components for issues.

 

Hey everyone! Brian from DAYCO here.

As mentioned, it does sound like you may have a misalignment or a tension issue. Belt noise is an indicator that is something is wrong within the belt drive system, but not actually the belt. If you need any additional information, let me know and I'll do my best to help.

Also, DAYCO serpentine belts are made of EPDM. And, 100 percent of the DAYCO serpentine belt line is Made in the United States.