Bearing on the tensioner pulley squeels.

Belts should have a half inch of play on the longest distance between pulleys...when you push down on it with your finger...not too tight or too loose.

Check the tensioner pulley and others for wear in the bearings as they can wear and fall apart...

Check for shiny spots on the belts for wear..also, Usually a bad or failing idler pulley will produce a few symptoms that can notify you of an issue.

Visibly worn pulleys. One of the first symptoms of an issue with an idler pulley is visible wear on the pulley. ...
Belt squealing. ...Damaged bearing or pulley. Like the belt tensioner pulley, it's designed to remove that annoying belt vibration that's caused by excessive belt slack. The only difference between them is that the tensioner is mounted on an adjustable bolt, while the idler pulley isn't..... cheer's

I believe that the arm is suppose to stay on the housing because the spring is not replaceable. The pulley is removable and it has a bearing that can go bad. If you price just the bearing pulley and then price the entire assembly( it has that pulley included) you will find that the whole assembly is not much higher than buying both parts separately. They have it made as 2 components, not 3.

The part just unbolts from the engine. You will see the bolt holes on your new part. Just make sure that you use the same bolts in the same position because some bolts can be different lengths. It varies by how the housing can be thicker around 1 bolt than another.

I`m pretty sure your belt tensioner pully is just held on with a couple bolts.Remove your serpentine belt,your main belt.look at the pulley see where the bolts are that hold it on and remove them.They are spring loaded so when u take it off make sure you have the new one to put on because once you remove it ,it is no good and have to put the new one on.

There are several possible reasons for this. The new belt may be the wrong size or have a different number of grooves cut into the belt. Some pulleys have more or less grooves which must match the number of grooves on any grooved pulley, even if only 1 pulley has the grooves.

Mounting the belt through different paths which makes slack in the belt.

Frozen or worn Belt tensioner which fails to put adequate tension on the belt. Idler pulley bearings can be worn out and new belt is now causing bearing to show up with noise.

When routing belt, make sure grooved part turns on grooved pulley and not the smooth backside of the belt.

remove pulley from tensioner &replace

The price that you would pay to replace the bearing would be more than if you were to replace the pulley itself.The cost of a new pulley depending on the area can range from 26.99 up to 36.99 at your local auto store.If you just replace the bearing you have the cost of the bearing the cost to have it pressed out and back in and that could be costly.

The bearing are probally going bad in your compressor.

It may be a idler pulley bearing starting to freeze up remove the belt and turn all pulleys,power steering pump, alternator, idler pulley , etc. to find out if there is excessive resistance offered if so this is the culprit, on the idler pulley check the raidial play in the bearing by trying to move it by holding it with your hand and try to wiggle it gently back and forth same with the other (pulleys) check for loosness or play in pulleys bearings if everything checks out ok the battery may be running low and upon startup the alternator is under alot of strain to compensate for the recent drain on the battery while it is stressed to turn the starter to start car, your car may be drawing power from the battery as the car sits causing this condition disconect the pos. terminal of the battery and run a positive voltmeter wire to battery terminal then run negative volt meter wire to the now removed positive battery terminal cable set the voltmeter to dc there should not be 12 volts present if so there is and open circuit present drawing down the battery as the car sits while off.

Good luck

You might need a new belt, or the spring in the belt tensioner is weak and not holding the belt tight to the pulleys, in which case that will need replacing.

Hi ncharron,

The first thing I'd check would be the belt(s) (tension, fraying, damage).
Second and most likely source of the problem is the alternator.

If you have someone to recruit as a helper, have them start the engine while you listen for the source of the squeel.
If you have a meter available, check the output voltage. From the Alternator.

The dropping voltage on the gauge is the key pointer here. It should maintain above +13.5VDC with the engine running.

The Squeeling is not a happy noise. Luckily an Alternator is easily checked and if necessary, replaced.

Let me know what you find out. That will tell us how to proceed.
Mike