Something is squealing, but when I get it wet...
 

It stops for a few seconds. History: For several months an occasional squealing has gotten real bad. I've taken the one year old belt off several times and turned every pulley and they make no noise and have no play. Last month though the year old water pump did have a little play and made some noise and had some dribble marks by the weep hole so I changed it. When I had it in my hand it had some play and made some noise. I thought that was it for sure, but noooo. The squealing is back. Like I said when I pored water on it the squealing stops, that seems to be key, but to what? ANY ideas?

Mine had that and it was the belt and my belt was only 2 years old. If I sprayed a little water on the belt the noise would stop. I changed the belt. No more squeal.

Mike

did you changed the multirib belt or maybe you have to tighten it?!
(just a little question)

I changed it just over a year ago and tightened it just over an hour ago. I also just tried some soap and that worked for a little while but now its worse, I think the soap washed off any oil that was suppressing the squeaking a little.

Automotive parts stores sell an aerosol product known as "belt dressing" which is intended to stop belts from squeaking. Sometimes it works.

Belt Squealing
 

In my experience, replacement parts that are not to the correct tolerance can cause this type of incurable squealing. For instance, the pulley on the replacement water pump or some other replaced part (i.e. alternator, air pump, etc.) may be out of line with the other pulleys, creating an off-center rubbing and squealing.

If this is the cause for your squealing, there may be no cure. I had the same problem on a Ford Escort I owned - Pep Boys water pump pulley protruded about 1/32 of an inch further out than all the other pulleys; not much, but enough to result in an incurable squeal. Even the belt dressing from Auto Zone wouldn't help.

Is there any black "dust" around the pulleys? Look for the faintest trace - it is actually rubber worn off the belt due to the off-center squealing. If so, there's nothing you can do outside of replacing the out-of-spec part and you'll just have to learn to live with it...

Eurika, its the belt, for what that's worth. I tryed some WD-40 and its quiet. I'll order a new one and buy some dressing to keep it quiet in the meantime. I'm going to predict the new water pumps are a little bit different. I'll see if I can check the alignmemt of the pulleys and maybe correct it.

Read the labels, please:
 

I have a can of belt dressing which has a warning on the label that it is not suitable for use on multi-rib belts. I'm not sure why not, but I do know that when I tried it anyway, it didn't do any good.

I bought and tried some belt dressing last night. It was squealing so loud it was leaving my ears ringing. When I sprayed the dressing on it stopped quicker than if I'd shut the engine off, and its been quiet ever since. I did read the label and it was almost entirely warnings, and didn't mention what not to use it on. I'll re-read the label but I can't argue with success.

I'm just wondering a one year old belt would do that. I took it off a couple of times, could I have damaged it to make it squeal?