So here's how it happened: My engine pretty much died at a stop light one day, managed to get it towed to the shop and apparently the bolt that holds all the belts on "fell out" according to the mechanic. He said it was a very uncommon problem. According to him there was no major engine damage (it hasn't sounded or felt the same since, but I think that may be just me being picky). He put humpty dumpty back together again and replaced the timing belt (it hadn't broken or snapped but it was due anyway so I had him do it while he was in there) and smogged it. Aside from the fact that the sound of the engine isn't the same as it was before things seem to run just fine. Here's the problem:

Now (about 4 months after the work was done) one or more of my belts are whining. 95% of the time when I start the car (temperature doesn't seem to affect this), on occasion at a stop light, and I'd say about 50% of the time the car is stopped and the A/C is on. It seems obvious that the A/C belt is a culprit but I don't know if any of the other belts is squealing as well. I would take it back to the shop, except A) it's a one-man show and his shop hours are the same as my work hours and is about a 40 minute drive from my house/office, and B) as mentioned the car seems to run fine, but I wasn't overly pleased with the customer service I got there and feel like it would be easier to deal with it myself.

A friend suggested that belts can get loose after being installed (or put back on as in the case of having the TB changed) and that they just need to be tightened again, but I can't seem to find a how to for tightening the belts on my particular year. So for someone who knows more about these cars than I do: would you go in and "retighten" the belts (I'm assuming there's some way to check the tension to ensure that indeed that IS my problem before I do so)? If so, how do I get to it? I am somewhat mechanically inclined if I have a decent set of instructions, but I don't like tearing into something without a clear path of how to get to my goal.

I did, btw, search the forum but was unable to find a post on how to actually tighten the belts. The common answer is to put something on it to fix it temporarily, but I don't think that is my problem nor do I want a temporary fix. Feel free to lambast me if there is a how to somewhere on here I missed, just point me to it rather than tell me to use the search function (I did that already )

Thanks!

 

If the timing belt was off by a tooth, then your engine would run pretty rough. So I would assume the engine is in time. Inspecting the TB requires removing the covers and this can be challenging. We can certainly give you directions on how to access and inspect the timing belt.

As for the squealing belt...

Adjusting the tension is pretty simple. It is done at the alternator. When standing at the bumper, there will be two bolts on the driver's side of the alternator. The one on top takes a 14mm, this it the big pivot bolt going through the alternator bracket. The lower one takes a 12mm socket, and may take a short socket and extension to get the socket wrench lined up.

Once those two bolts are loosened, there is a bolt on the bottom of the alternator that takes a 10mm socket. Turn that bolt one turn clockwise to take up some slack. Retighten the other two bolts. See if the problem goes away.

You don't want to overtighten that belt, so take up the tension one turn at a time. You will become very quick at doing the adjustment, since it took me a few tries until the squealing on my 95 accord went away.

 

Perfect! Thank you. I'll do this this weekend and report back.

 

I finally had a chance to get in there so I found and loosened the 12mm and 14mm bolts, and I think I found the 10mm one, but it's functioning like any other bolt on the car: it's already pretty tight and only gets more so when I tighten it. I've only turned it a half turn and it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid I'll either strip it or break it (and now it's squealing even louder and 100% of the time). From the look of it, I would expect I should be able to loosen or tighten as much as I want, as one would expect from a tensioning bolt, but the bolt I'm working on isn't working that way. I've attached a shot of the bolt I think you're referring to. Is this the right one? (Sorry for the odd angle: not a lot of room in there).

 

Yes that is the adjustment bolt for the alt. Be sure the mounting and lock nuts/bolts are loose enough.

 

And try loosening the adjusting bolt. If it loosens, back it out quite a ways and put some anti-seize or a drop of oil on the threads. You should be able to move the alternator up and down by hand when that bolt is backed out.

 

Thanks for all of your input and sorry for the lagging responses, but I'm working crazy hours lately and haven't been able to get under my hood again until today. I had the same thought as Roader and tried that, but with no difference in squealing. I was also curious, and found I was right, that I am able to adjust the 10mm bolt without loosening the 12mm and 14mm bolts... I've loosened it quite a bit in the other direction and tightened it as tight as I can but it all squeals just as much on startup. Not sure where to go from here...

 

Something's wrong. Maybe the 6mm adjusting bolt is stripped or the 6mm adjusting nut/threaded bracket (I forget which) is stripped or both. With the two through bolts loose and the adjusting bolt backed off the alternator should move up and down through its adjusting range. Does it?

Edit: By 6mm I'm talking about bolt diameter, not the size of the bolt head. The adjusting bolt head size is 10mm, just as the through bolts have 12mm and 14mm heads.

 

I actually did try to move the alternator up and down per your suggestion once the 12mm and 14mm bolts were loose, but it wouldn't move at all. I also tried completely removing the lower bolt and backing the swing bolt way out but still the alternator wouldn't budge. It seems a little strange being that I just had it in the shop for this in January, but I suppose over 5 months things can get tight??? None of the bolts appear to be stripped though, they will tighten up just fine. I sprayed a bunch of DW-40 (only thing like that I had laying around) on the adjuster bolt earlier this morning, I'll head out in a few to see if that made it to where it will tighten down further.

 

No location listed but it might be corroded. Aluminum on steel, dissimilar metals. If so it can usually be freed up by putting short piece of 2x4 on the alternator and banging on it with a decent weight hammer. The alternator has to pivot around the top bolt. The bottom bolt goes through a radiused slot in the bracket. The bottom bolt has to slide in that slot.