Get a scope on it to locate the source. The tensioner pulleys go bad and start making noise long before they actually fail. You can buy them all as a kit, and the replacements are made much sturdier than the original plastic ones thank god. Not to say this is your problem of course...

 

If you are over 70,000 miles replace the 2 idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley. Don't try putting anything on the belt, in the form of belt dressing or you will just make a mess.

 

x2 on the belt tensioner...this is exactly what happened to mine. I foolishly sprayed wd40 in it to see if it helped - it did, but only to mask the screaming.

Next thing that happened was a complete blow out of it - on the highway with no spares etc...

REPLACE IT NOW if it turns out to be the tensioner.

 

Forgot to mention, i'm at ~48k miles... So i'm not so sure that its necessary to replace tensioner/idler just yet. Seems to be holding tension well, and is not locked up. The noise seems to be coming from the opposite side of the engine compartment (near PAS). So I suppose if this new belt does not fix it I will be replacing the PAS or water pump pulley...

 

If your PAS pump or water pump is making a noise replacing the pulleys will not do a thing. There is an idler pulley next to the PAS pump check that.

 

Do you know how to verify is one of the 3 pulley bearing is failing, how about the tensioner, you keep mentioning it seems to be OK, but have you located the built in gauge to see if in fact it has enough tension?

 

I checked the tensioner gauge - it appears to be within spec. I do not know how i'd check the condition of idler bearings... apart from no visual runout. Old belt had one large crack nearly through entire ribbing. New belt has silenced all noise, for now.

 

Pull your belt off and spin each pulley and find the noise one.

 

Dealership is telling me that I cannot replace the pulley on the PAS pump and must replace PAS pump to fix pulley noise (quote $800 plus). Is this true?

 

Another jump in of an old thread, but here goes. I'm chasing noises from bearings, fan clutches, idler pulleys or something. I found one of the idler pulleys, and pulled it from my parts truck, but in this thread, I read DM talking about TWO idler pulleys AND a tensioner?? Good grief. I only see one in the RAVE. Need to find the other ASAP. I'm driving a 2002 D2 BTW. I pulled the one under the Alternator, but where is the other one, and the tensioner?

 

#'s 1,5 and 9

 

Cool. I'm going to pull the belt and spin them all and maybe swap all three out one at a time. Still, seeing as there is no noise when the heater is off, I suspect the ac compressor. I'm going to test that out in the morning first. Then all I have to do is figure out how to safely remove my spare from my parts truck.