Soaping Your Belts?

Hey guys, I heard when I was much younger that if you had a squeaky belt problem, but didn't think that the belt was at fault, like a new belt or something, that you can use white bar soap and run it on the underside of your belt as a kinda belt lubricant...? I know petroleum based products are bad for rubber, but i trust the guy that told me this, and this seems to make some sense, and my serpentine belt has been squeaking, or idler pulley.
So before I tried this I thought I'd see what replies I got.

i fail to see the logic in lubing the belt if you don't think the belt is at fault. if your think the idler is bad there isn't much you can do besides replace it or wear earplugs. i don't like any type of regular belt dressing, let alone soap(which i have never heard of before)

I'm inclined to agree with sierra. I can only think that lubrication is going to make the belt slip worse, which will in the end result in more squeeking and you having to replace the belt sooner.

This is exactly why God invented sound systems. :naughty:
Seriously, I would think that not addressing the issue will result in ruinning a perfectly good belt.

I agree...the issue needs to be addressed, but lubricating the belt would be the incorrect way to go about it. The idler pulley is only 1 bolt to pull, and you could probably just replace the bearing on the pulley for 10 bucks or less if you had a press. If you want to replace the whole pulley, I would be surprised if it costs more than 20 bucks.

However, I have not heard of an idler pulley going out, and I would be much more inclined to suspect the tensioner pulley instead, which would cost a bit more, but still be relatively simple to install. You would probably need to go through the wheel well, and might need to loosen the upper mount to jack the engine around for more clearance. The tensioner is a bit of a pain to remove clearance wise, but it still shouldn't take more than an hour or so.

I get a squeak at low RPMs, and I get a vibration at idle - I'm sure that the vibration is from one of the two pulleys mentioned, as it shakes, but I'm not sure whether it is the belt or pulley squeaking...
Thanks for the tips on changing the pulleys,
BTW I didn't soap my belt...

if the belt is shaking or jumping, then i would be even more inclined to expect the problem to be with the tensioner pulley. an easy way to tell would be to just pull the belt off and spin the idler pulley...if it spins freely, and turns through several rotations with a single hard spin then the bearing is probly all right...also spin the pulley slowly while putting downward pressure on it. if you feel any obvious chinks or grinds, again the bearing could be bad. other than that, check the pulleys on the other accessories. the alternator should spin easily by hand, and you should be able to check the a/c by turning it on and off at the control panel (with the belt on). the power steering i would check simply by running the car with the belt on and watching and listening to the pump while adjusting the throttle at the throttle body. I had my power steering pump throw a bearing, but it was pretty obvious that it was bad simply because of the smoke streaming up from it. :) Probably info that you already know, mysatilac, but possibly it will help someone else who looks at these posts.

:) Probably info that you already know, mysatilac, but possibly it will help someone else who looks at these posts.
Thanks for the vote of confidence :biggrin:
Sorry, I should have been more specific. The belt is not shaking, the pulley is, the vibration goes all through my car. Not extreme shaking just enough to make my manual window knobs rattle.
I was just trying to take the free and easy way out by soaping the belt, although it is obviously not too expensive to get the idler pulley repaired/replaced, right now I can't afford to pay attention :grinyes:

mysat -

check the crank pulley for "crank walk"(the crank pulley will move in and out)

remove the belt and start the engine, see if the vibration is still there(DO NOT run your engine for more then 60 seconds with the belt off, as you are running with no water pump and no alternator)

before puting the belt back on, turn all pulleys by hand(make sure you do it in the normal direction of rotation) see if you notice anything funny.

is this a auto or manual?

Its a manual,
do you have the link to the pulley ID,
I know you listed it in a thread but I'm lazy and already waiting on a reply...

http://www.saturnfans.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/8177/

as i'm sure you know the crank pulley is the one thats not labeled in the pic at the bottom

I once again heard (from a different person) soaping your belts will stop a squeak, this time I asked the person where the heard it they said it was on CSI, I don't know what reference CSI made to it, since I dont watch the show,


But this is at least the second person that has told me soaping your belts it worth while for stopping a squeak,

I may try it and post my results,

:shakehead :disappoin :twak: :chair:

i'm thinking anout dropping out of school and watching CSI all day :uhoh:

:lol:

Sarcasm is fun, :biggrin:

I'm thinking about going to school (more) and stopping watching TV all day,

Pimp My Ride, HP TV, Trucks, American Chopper, Biker Buildoff, Monster Garage (not in order) are great

I had to replace the belt idler on my 97 SC2 at about 100,000 miles. It was making a whining noise, kinda grinding too. It was also making the belt run one rib off to one side. I did it myself in about twenty minutes. I found if you take the motor mount loose on the left top you can rock the motor over a little and give you more room to get to the darn thing. I think the new pulley was about forty bucks if my memory is correct. I went ahead and put a new belt on while is was at it since it was the original and had a little wear on it. Mainly from the bad pulley. It wasn't too hard of a fix though.

I should've listened, just soaped my belt (only the back/flat side) and took it for a short test drive, the squeak continued,

jgeib, dont have the 40 bucks or I'd try it,

I may remove my belt and spin the pulleys as mentioned earlier (still haven't gotten around to it)

Thanks for the tip about removing the top mount

Went ahead and bought some STP belt dressing, didn't help, :sigh: guess I'll have to save up money to get a new tensioner or idler pulley,

I'll eventually get around to pullin the belt off and testin to see which one it is,
I take so much pride in my car, that squeak is killin me,
Gotta get it takin care of

not only did the belt dressing not help, i bet its now spun, splashed, and sprayed all over the engine compartment.

Is that a big deal? yeah, some sprayed off but not excessive, all stayed with in a foot of the belt system, and mostly just below the belt where I missed the underside of the belt

But I've got bigger problems, the gasket I layed down when I painted the Valve Cover wasn't good enough, now I've got oil sittin all around my #4 Plug
Gonna go ahead and buy maroon engine enamel and redo the paint job while I got it off
Anybody seen maroon engine enamel in aerosol? I've seen it sold by the pint for spray guns, but its like 20 bucks, My last can was like 5-6