MX-3.com

hello im kind of new to this but , i bought a 94 mazda mx3 in october of 2005 . its the 1.6 l 4 cylinder model .. nearly a month after i noticed high pitched squealing when i started the car , or when i turned the heat on or used my wipers ... etc any power what so ever.. and then the alternator / water pump belt came off.. so i replaced it... this has been going on since then i have replaced about a dozen of these belts , ive taken it to two garages and no one knows what it is... this reoccurred on thursday night and i replaced my belt , and again its eating away at it , debris from the belt all over the place. Everyone i talk to says oh its too loose or too tight .. its not the case its been looked into ... now ive read the post about a possible glaze on the pulley but its not that because i cleaned up my pulley ... and sand blasted it.. and its not a problem with my tensioner because i dont have one... if anybody has had any of these problems or knows anything or even has any suggestions please message me or post a reply .. thank u ... it would help a lot

easy e wrote:and its not a problem with my tensioner because i dont have one...

How do you loosen/tighten the belt then?

Since its happening with electrical load i would guess one or more of the following is the reason (this is not a complete list)
-alternator bolts may be loose (or the mounting bracket is cracked and wiggling)
-alternator pulley is bent
-bearing is gone
-alternator and/or voltage regulator is failing
-The wiring from the alternator is corroded

If you are looking for a temp fix you can try some belt dressing spray - it might help for a while.
For a permanent fix - it might help to get the alternator/bearing/pulley checked and install a ground wire kit and clean up the contacts and connectors. Of course it will help a lot more if you swap a high output alternator from a GS. Search for "alternator swap" in the search page....

A common problem for squealing belts is pulley itself. If you replaced the belts and it is still squealing, the pulley could have a glaze on it. If it does have the glaze, it will make the pulley hot because the belt is actually slipping on the pulley and if it goes too long, the belt could wear and break prematurely. I replaced my belts a couple of times and didn't understand why the belts were wearing so quick and this was the reason.

If you replaced the belt and it was okay for a couple of days, chances are that the belt stretched and just has to be retightened. I hope this helps.

Jeff

i dont have a tensioner i have an adjuster on mine thats what the tech from mazda said anyways.... but today i bought a new pulley for my alternator.. im gonna see how that works and hope for the best. thank u for ur help.

ok i can understand what your talking about with the belts i have the same problem i replaced my alt and the main crank pully still have the noise but i have noticed that if i throw the car in nutral (auto) and turn every now and then it feels like i have no power steering so if you have the same problem with the steering could the problem actually lie in the power steering pump being screwed, i find it as the only thing left to replace but its on a different belt but could the tention needed to get the problematic pump to spin cause the alternator belt to lose grip for a breif time till the other belt stars to work ??????


damn this is starting to sound like the chaos theroy all over again!!


Reaper
greg

when i through my car into neutral the squealing will sometimes stop but i dont notice a difference with my power steering... the place i got my new pulley from said that this is a common problem with mazda mx3 's and sometimes u cant do anything about it , every car has its main problem ... i hope there wrong tho because its annoying and costly..

if you have a 94 MX3 1.6 then you do have a tensioner down front below the belt(s). You should have 2 belts down there on the left over the water pump and timing belt. The tensioner is located to the front and below, you will have to reach down there, it's very hard to see. You couldn't have put the belts on without using it. Mine does that crap alot and I am going to try to adjust it tomorrow; the funny thing is if I leave the clutch engaged when I start it and dont slap it in neutral it goes on longer. Mine might be the pulley because lately when it has been squealing I'm getting alot of vibration too, then the squealing stops and the engine doesn't idle rough....good luck!

thanks to a little talk with trevor i've found out it could also be a problem with the ac pump. so quick question does your ac work? if not remove it the problem may lie within the magnetic clutch in the pully as soon as i figure out what size belt i need (and better weather) i'm going to rip the freacking pump out and try from there


Reaper
Greg

well i fixed the problem it was just one of my pulleys , the alternator one...finally.. no more squealing.. i just hope it stays that way..

guess that's what Im trying next then

cool i hope yours works i've already changed alt and also the crank pully and mine still squealls

reaper of souls wrote:thanks to a little talk with trevor i've found out it could also be a problem with the ac pump. so quick question does your ac work? if not remove it the problem may lie within the magnetic clutch in the pully as soon as i figure out what size belt i need (and better weather) i'm going to rip the freacking pump out and try from there


Reaper
Greg

You know that is a good question....yeah my A/C works but it drags my RPM down so bad it kills the car....I have to rev it up to keep if goin'....you could have somethin there...thx

I used to have the same problem. I went through belts like one a week and I also took it to several shops and no one could figure it out. I was told the pulley needs replacing, the pulleys were out of alignment all sorts of things.
I accidently fixed it myself. I decided to upgrade my ground points because I had trouble with idling and read that this would help (I still have trouble with idling), but the squealing stopped. I have had the same belt on for the last 2 years and I have not changed the alternator.
Try ugrading your ground points or at the very least pull off the original ground pointsand clean them up. Pull the bolt scrape the paint from the car and clean up the terminal, rebolt it down and put some grease or paint over it to keep it from rusting.
If your alternator has to work extra hard to make some juice, it will pull harder on the belt.
Try it, it worked for me.

Hope this helps


P.S. It may help with the AC problem too, compressors pull tons of current.

awesome and thanks for the tips!!!

tried that i've upgraded all my cables in my car to 4awg wiring and a 2awg power cable from my alternator to the battery so in my case i think it's the ac pully


reaper
greg