Water pump noise... maybe? (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Lancruza

On a mission!
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Threads
42
Messages
118
Location
King, NC
I just finished a coolant service on my 80. I put on new belts along with a new thermostat and water pump. Now it sounds like I have a supercharger! Is this a bad waterpump possibly? I put on an Aisin. No noise with the old pump. The old pump was in surprisingly good shape. The new belts have 3/4" of deflection and are not too tight Here's an audio clip of how it sounds. Thoughts...

 
Try spraying some WD40 on the traction side of the belts. If the noise goes away, you found the culprit. Assuming you used the matched PAIR of new belts and not 2 different belts - one old, one new - which would obviously be a bad idea.

This is one of the few worthy uses for WD40, other than cleaning oil stains off of your driveway!

ETA: take a close look at your idler pulley setup and the tensioner for the belts. If these aren't spinning smoothly, they could also contribute to the noise...
 
Last edited:
Try spraying some WD40 on the traction side of the belts. If the noise goes away, you found the culprit. Assuming you used the matched PAIR of new belts and not 2 different belts - one old, one new - which would obviously be a bad idea.

This is one of the few worthy uses for WD40, other than cleaning oil stains off of your driveway!

ETA: take a close look at your idler pulley setup and the tensioner for the belts. If these aren't spinning smoothly, they could also contribute to the noise...
Thanks for the help/suggestion. I had narrowed it down to the idler pulley by listening and using a long handle screwdriver. I removed the pulley and she's quiet once again. I just watched a video that showed how to replace the bearing in the pulley. Then I read where some do away with this tensioner. This fixed the problem for now. I may rebuild or I may leave it off. Thanks again.
 
I debated this the last time the bearing in the tensioner got noisy, and ended up changing the bearing and remounting it. I figured if Toyota decided to spend an extra $2-3 per vehicle, over an entire build cycle, that's real $$$ and it must be worthwhile to them for durability and reliability.

The $~5 bearing, a bench vice, and a collection of sockets gets that job done. Good work,
 
@Lancruza : IMHO I would avoiding using any petroleum/solvent based product on rubber fan belts (although they regularly get oil soaked if your engine has leaks). If your belts are squeaking they're either too loose, too tight, wrong type/ shape, or worn out. If the AC tensioner pulley groove is significantly worn (V becoming a U) that may also contribute to belt noise IMO.

To help determine if a noise is coming from the belts you can spray water on them with the engine idling ie: using a garden hose (or a bottle of water), just a quick spray from in front/above the engine directly at the belts/harmonic balancer (not at the distributor). If the noise is from a belt it should go away for a second or two then come back.

The AC Idle (tensioner) pulley bearing can be replaced but keep in mind that the pulley grooves themselves can wear (ie: the V shape can become wallowed
out slightly) so IMO it might be better to just go ahead and replace the entire AC pulley/bearing assembly (88440-26090) if yours is the original.

The Alternator Idler pulley (16603-66010) does have a bearing but to replace it you have to drill out a bunch of rivets, replace the bearing, replace
all the rivets,--- just way too much trouble. Buy either a new Toyota idler pulley or if money is tight NSK makes a high quality pulley (64TB0101S01) for 1/8th the Toyota price (OEM $114 retail vs NSK $14 @ Rockauto).

Been discussed in the past and some people run without the alternator fan belt idler pulley but IMHO it serves a purpose (general agreement that it's there to keep the belts from flopping around and coming off).

 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom