Drive Belt Squeal Fix 4 Cylinder

So I had developed this squeal/hiss that I could hear when driving my 2015 4 cylinder Automatic Tacoma with 70K.

It wasn't consistent. It was just occasional when the truck was under load like going up a hill in 4th gear. Then I could gas it and it would downshift to 3rd and the squeal would go away.

I figured it was just the drive belt going bad so I went to Toyota for a new belt ($70) The parts guy wanted to sell me a tensioner, too ($250) but I had doubts that the tensioner would be bad with only 70K on the truck so I got just the belt.

It turned out I was right. Swapping the belt only took about 20 minutes and it hasn't squealed again in the last week.

The funny thing is that I'm used to being able to see that a belt is going bad. On my older vehicles I could see cracking in an old belt.

This belt appeared okay until I laid it along side the new belt. Then I could see that the grooves between the ribs on the belt were very warn down. This wear resulted in a decrease in the friction between the pulley and the belt, causing the slippage/squeal.

So if you are getting that squeal, try changing out your belt first. It's a fairly cheap and easy fix and a warn belt might lead to failure leaving you stranded.

Also, I prefer to buy OEM on things like this. The aftermarket belts were half the price but if the belt change hadn't fixed the problem I would be wondering if it was the tensioner that was the problem or had I just bought a crappy cheap belt.

Good idea to keep your old belt inside your truck, too, just in case. It doesn't take up much room and it could be a quick fix if your new belt ever failed.

 

Toyota part number 90916-02640 , which is the

$24 BANDO 7PK2285 OEM Quality Serpentine Belt

BANDO 7PK2285

Without A/C is 90916-02639 , which is BANDO 7PK1870