Accesory Belt Chirping Noise (not slipping)

Aaiiee · 10-06-2007, 04:03 PM

Does anyone else find their Sportage accessory belts (alternator, A/C, Fan) noisy?

Mine always make a little birdie kind of chirpy noise as they cycle. Just to be clear it’s not the poor-tension-squealing-like-a-banshee kind of belt slipping noise. When I'm at speed its not noticeable over the road noise, but when I'm at a idling at a stop it sounds like my Kia is powered by Jiminy and his little friends -- I’d like to keep the crickets in the swamp.

As I understand it, the pulleys being just slightly out of alignment so that the side of the V-belt rubs the sides of the pulleys like cricket legs rubbing together

Its not enough to cause significant wear on my belts, just an annoyance. My truck is pushing 195000 km and they're still the original belts. If I use belt dressing, or a bar of hand soap (old trick - be careful or you'll lose a finger or hand), the noise stops instantly, but returns in a couple days or weeks when the dressing or soap-lube wears off (happens faster when humidity is high).

I read on a Land Rover forum that some of the rover engines are susceptible to this type of noise and the permanent fix with them is to align the pulleys. There are even tools, of varying sophistication to aid in the alignment. Unfortunately, I don't believe the Sportage pulleys will allow any adjustment other than the standard tension adjustments -- the rover pulleys seem to have shims and set screws and such to help line, plumb and otherwise square them up.

Does anyone else have this complaint of their engine belts, and if so, have you found any way to fix it short of going with new belts or constantly dressing them? (New belts will only fix it for a couple months so I understand).

shadetreemechanic · 10-06-2007, 06:45 PM

Change the belts.....

sportage4x4 · 10-08-2007, 11:16 PM

there was a TSB for an updated bracket to fix the alignment of the pulleys. it was not available in all markets, however. best to check with your dealer.

Aaiiee · 10-11-2007, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sportage4x4

there was a TSB for an updated bracket to fix the alignment of the pulleys. it was not available in all markets, however. best to check with your dealer.

Cool thanks!

I've checked through the TSBs on kiatech and can't seem to find the one you're refering to. The only TSB I could see replacing a bracket for the belt components was for the Sorento.

You wouldn't happen to know the TSB number would you?

Thanks,
Warren

sportage4x4 · 10-11-2007, 03:46 PM

i dont have it, but i may be able to dig it up. this is for the canadian market tho, as i rtecall the US never got the update.

Trucklet · 07-02-2009, 08:40 PM

Boy, I'd love to hear the resolution to this, as my 2002 Sportage does EXACTLY the same thing... a sort of "twee twee twee twee" sound when idling, but not at speed. I tried belt dressing, but it did nothing.

Baratacus · 07-02-2009, 10:36 PM

belts are cheap and that one is the easiest of the three belts to replace. 195,000km on an 8 year old belt, its due for a new one.

KIAOwnerX3 · 07-02-2009, 10:41 PM

My 03 Sorento starting making the chirping noise you describe...I changed them all and the noise went away...

miccim · 07-05-2009, 09:57 AM

have the same problem like that and replace the A/C pulley and its fixed now

bouttree · 08-03-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trucklet

Boy, I'd love to hear the resolution to this, as my 2002 Sportage does EXACTLY the same thing... a sort of "twee twee twee twee" sound when idling, but not at speed. I tried belt dressing, but it did nothing.

on my 2000 sportage with the same noise I was told it could be the timing belt