I hate belt squeaks, unfortunately the 80 series seems to like them. Most 80 series have a swisha swisha noise. Most of the time its mild, mine was getting very very loud. I thought it was time for new main belts (the waterpump/alternator run twin belts) but after replacing them it didn’t seem to change, so I ordered a new idler pulley for the main and then on the advice of the forums a bearing for the AC clutch.
I pulled off the skids to get at the AC belt since I figured I should start there (taking off the main belts requires pulling out the main fan, which is a little bit of a pain.)
Just for fun I pulled the idler pulley for the AC off to inspect it. Bingo. Nasty looking and dry as a bone. I pulled the snap ring off and inspected the bearing number. Would you look at that, it’s the same number for the AC clutch bearing. Clever Toyota. Banged out the old bearing, popped in the new bearing and put on the new belt. Silent as the grave...I mean for the 1fz which isn’t that quiet. Ac clutch bearing felt fine, btw.
to be fair this bearing has been completely underwater more than a few times in its 320,000 mile life. I’m still going to get around to changing the other idler pulley I bought but I am going to do that as part of a much bigger project to reseal the oil pump, replace the front main seal, replace the power steering lines, replace the alternator bushes and rebuilt the starter motor plunger and brushes.
Turn up the volume and you can hear of bad the bearing was.
These next few weeks are going to be interesting. No church and no school for the kids. That would be great if I could work from home like most folks, but being in healthcare communications has proven difficult. Oh well, I’m going to try and sneak out anyway. I have family coming in from DC and we want to go camping. So I’m going to make it happen.