This problem on my 97 Civic DX just cropped up when some cold weather hit Boston recently...I had the belt changed before the end of the summer and everything was running smoothly. Though now in the cold weather, my alternator belt slips, but not constantly...the conditions are usually the same: I have the fan going on 2 and the headlights on...as soon as I roll to a stop and hit the brakes, I notice the voltage drops almost to 11v and my dash lights dim. As soon as I give a little push on the throttle, the belt screams for a few seconds and then all is back to normal, but only lasts for a little bit. If I just idle again with the brakes on, it happens again. The problem does not happen while driving, but never goes away no matter how much I drive.

I did a little digging on HAN and saw that some people said to retension the belt for similar issues...will this clear the issue and is this something I can do myself?

Thanks for any help...it's getting so annoying to hold the idle higher at lights and the screech is loud as heck!

T-X

 

Bump...someone help please!

 

you can retension the belt yourself. there is a little bolt that you use to adjust it. its located on the side of the alternator, next to the a/c belt. i dont know if reensioning the belt will help your issue, but it wont hurt to try. best of luck.

 

fist check for play in the belt, if it has too much play then that's your prob. but if it's cool then just spay some belt dressing. and if you do adj. and it still makes the nosie, then just spray it some belt dressing, get it at your loc. auto store.

 

Belt dressing FTL. That only makes the problem worse in the long run. Just fix it right the first time.

 

Ftl?

 

No good. Something you don't want to happen. "For the lose."

And simplyredvw is right. Belt dressing is not a good thing to use.

 

if it's too tight it will also make a noise and eventually snap...so if it's making a noise it's either too tight or too lose, I beleive it's a 10mm bolt on the top of the altenator in the track, slide a long screw driver between the altenator (don't break anything) and the altenator bracket and then retighten the bolt...if it doesn't seem too lose or too tight, check for rubbing on the sides of the belt, if it looks like it's fraying then the belt will be rubbing on one of your pulleys...might be a little far advanced than you're ready for.

 

Update on the belt, got together with some friends and adjusted the tension - squeal is gone! Just pulled the alternator to adjust and all seems pretty fine. Thanks everyone for the advice - hopefully it'll hold right, but the belt looked perfect and there was no fraying. Took a bit to get the bolt lose, but once we figured it out, it was just a matter of tension.