5th Gen RAM Belt Chirp?

[Lift89]

Does anyone experience belt chirp or squeak with 5th Gen?

I replaced both the tensioner and belt with a gates tensioner and greenback belt, and it still chirps, which is annoying.

However, today I moved the belt off and did notice my idler pulley had a slight wobbly/uneven rotation.

The pulley and bearing sound perfect, but the actual idler wheel had a minimal wobble.

Can a minor defect like that in the idler pulley cause a chirp/squeak?


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[AK Bob]

You could try mineral oil or belt dressing on the idler wheel to see if the sound changes or goes away.

On our industrial belt-driven Air Handlers, we used to spray a little belt dressing on each pulley to determine where the sound was coming from; usually, the pulley was worn, glazed, or miss-aligned.

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[Lift89]

So I spray the belt the noise completely goes away.

So I replaced the belt and tensioner two times.

I only have 26,000 miles.

The noise subsides for a few thousand and then comes back.

So I decided to check all the pulleys by spinning them, and they all looked good except the idler pulley.

That one had a tiny wobble/alignment.

You could notice the groves in the puller wheel were t perfectly straight.

So I’ll be replacing that and see if that was the issue.

Maybe a defective idler wheel.


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[Scottpfeiffer]

My daughter had this.

In the end, she replaced the belt a second time because it had picked up some fluid, causing the chirp.

You could check the belt for spots that might have gotten some foreign matter on it.

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[Chrisn162001]

I’ve replaced a lot of tensioners for belt chirps on the 5th Gens; if it’s been chirping for a while, it will probably need a belt too.


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[ricky_bobby]

To answer OP's question, yes, the most minor of issues can cause a belt squeak.

Replace the idler pulley, if necessary, as that seems to be the culprit.

In my years, I would stick to Genuine OEM or equivalent belts and tensioners/pulleys; I've noticed a lot of junk for the belt system produced by the aftermarket.

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[Lift89]

Fixed the problem.

It was for sure the harmonic balancer.

Replaced that with new belt and the belt is silent now.

No chirp squeak or anything.

The TSB worked.


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