Does your Alt. belt squeal ????

[pcb]

You need to address the root cause of the problem, either your belt is worn/insufficiently-tightened, the alternator is bad (4 alternators in 4 years suggests you're getting bad remans), or something is contaminating the belt/pulleys and causing the slippage.

Of the 4 alternators that crapped out, 3 of them had the bearing go bad and one screwed up internally and started pumping out more than 17 volts and then drained the battery after I shut the car off. But of course, a week after the one that blew up was replaced there was a news report of a major recall of reman. alternators from my "store" and I just paid $180 to have my piece of crap replaced. I could have pushed the issue but my car was running and I just let it go,....

ALL the alternators had been over tightened. Mechanics don't want customers coming back with squealing belts so they just crank em tight. Then when the customer comes back half a year later with a squealing alternator bearing that's fine because it's got a two year warranty and I only have to pay for the labor,... only $180. All of these four alternators were replaced within that original two year period,... wasn't I lucky!!! And then by the fourth re install, the axle seal was gushing gear oil,... another $200, but I'm sure pulling the axle four times had nothing to do with it. It's a 13 year old car those kinds of things are bound to happen and we've all gotta keep the economy going don't we.

So,..now that I took over control,.. I just keep the belt on the looser side and play with my electrical loads when necessary,...

But I am still convinced that that control wire from the ECU is in fact magic,.. So I'm gonna go ahead and play with it !!!!

However,... due to the fact that I have a tendency to create problems that aren't really there and then cloud up the forum with my nonsense,... I shan't be posting any results.

(P.S. If the circuit in question is so delicate with such huge detrimental ramifications,... then there is no way my car can survive an accidental full field or no field blast correct ??. So when that magic wire is broken or corroded and your brand new alternator isn't putting out any power then that must have destroyed your ECU right ?? And when you disconnect your ground terminal from your battery with the car running then reconnect it, the shock to the system will obviously destroy your ECU,... and when you hook up a 200,000 watt sound system to your P5 requiring your alternator to go from no field to full field 30 times a second, then you obviously kill Everything,... the alternator the battery and the ECU Right ??? (there was a hint of sarcasm in that entire paragraph,... so you'll need to ignore it))

P.S.S,... I was talking to an acquaintance of mine who told me how his Brother-In-Law was hired to be the manager of the automotive department at one of those "stores". Out of 13 people working in that department, he was the ONLY licensed mechanic.
So when I get a call at the end of their work day saying that both my rear calipers are seized and my quote for a brake job has expanded from $200 to $750, the pro's must be right ??,... I thought they had a system called Mitchel that would tell them about removing a little bolt then turn the Allen screw ?,... I guess these unlicensed kids don't know how to work a computer or read ???,.. Oh well I've got $500 to spare,.. I like too how I'm charged for two cans of brake cleaner at full price when they installed new pads, rotors and calipers,.. I guess they used it to clean their hands,...

 

[lowlevel]

ALL the alternators had been over tightened. Mechanics don't want customers coming back with squealing belts so they just crank em tight. Then when the customer comes back half a year later with a squealing alternator bearing that's fine because it's got a two year warranty and I only have to pay for the labor,... only $180.

I thought they had a system called Mitchel that would tell them about removing a little bolt then turn the Allen screw ?,... I guess these unlicensed kids don't know how to work a computer or read ???,.. Oh well I've got $500 to spare,.. I like too how I'm charged for two cans of brake cleaner at full price when they installed new pads, rotors and calipers,.. I guess they used it to clean their hands,...

We're going down a bit of a rabbit hole here, but from my observations this sounds about right. Looking up the proper procedure or belt tension specifications is probably going to happen as a last resort... I've never seen anyone pull out a torque wrench for anything other than engine or transmission work... they'll just impact everything usually, even if you ask them not to. "What's the torque spec on these bolts?" ... "FT" (F'n Tight)

 

[CheeseHelmet]

That's one heck of a wall of text; I'll do my best to answer what I can.

Of the 4 alternators that crapped out, 3 of them had the bearing go bad and one screwed up internally and started pumping out more than 17 volts and then drained the battery after I shut the car off. But of course, a week after the one that blew up was replaced there was a news report of a major recall of reman. alternators from my "store" and I just paid $180 to have my piece of crap replaced. I could have pushed the issue but my car was running and I just let it go,....

ALL the alternators had been over tightened. Mechanics don't want customers coming back with squealing belts so they just crank em tight. Then when the customer comes back half a year later with a squealing alternator bearing that's fine because it's got a two year warranty and I only have to pay for the labor,... only $180. All of these four alternators were replaced within that original two year period,... wasn't I lucky!!! And then by the fourth re install, the axle seal was gushing gear oil,... another $200, but I'm sure pulling the axle four times had nothing to do with it. It's a 13 year old car those kinds of things are bound to happen and we've all gotta keep the economy going don't we.

So crappy remans and possible over-tightening was the reason for the multiple alternator failures. The thing is, if the alternator was properly rebuilt with quality bearings then even if the belt was a little on the tight-side it wouldn't really matter. You're making it sound like there's some delicate balance between too tight and not quite tight enough. Simply put, if the belt is good and it's still squealing then the belt isn't tight enough. If the alternator bearings fail because of this then the bearings were not up to spec.

So,..now that I took over control,.. I just keep the belt on the looser side and play with my electrical loads when necessary,...

But I am still convinced that that control wire from the ECU is in fact magic,.. So I'm gonna go ahead and play with it !!!!

However,... due to the fact that I have a tendency to create problems that aren't really there and then cloud up the forum with my nonsense,... I shan't be posting any results.

I'm all for experimentation, don't get me wrong! But this is not a *solution* to the belt squealing problem.

There's also no magic involved, increasing the field current will increase the alternator output voltage and decreasing the field current will decrease the alternator output voltage. That being said, if you throw some resistance in series with the field current line you might not get a change in output voltage since the ECU will notice the voltage drop at the alternator output and correct it by further increasing the field current. You're better off messing with the voltage sense wire (the W/L wire on connector A-02) instead. I suspect it will be easier (and safer) to manipulate the output voltage that way.

This of course assumes that the ECU is not monitoring the battery voltage in conjunction with that W/L wire... Either way, you won't find out until you try! The control systems implemented in the ECU are effectively "magic" to us since there's no chance in hell that we'll ever see the source code.

(P.S. If the circuit in question is so delicate with such huge detrimental ramifications,... then there is no way my car can survive an accidental full field or no field blast correct ??. So when that magic wire is broken or corroded and your brand new alternator isn't putting out any power then that must have destroyed your ECU right ?? And when you disconnect your ground terminal from your battery with the car running then reconnect it, the shock to the system will obviously destroy your ECU,... and when you hook up a 200,000 watt sound system to your P5 requiring your alternator to go from no field to full field 30 times a second, then you obviously kill Everything,... the alternator the battery and the ECU Right ??? (there was a hint of sarcasm in that entire paragraph,... so you'll need to ignore it))

P.S.S,... I was talking to an acquaintance of mine who told me how his Brother-In-Law was hired to be the manager of the automotive department at one of those "stores". Out of 13 people working in that department, he was the ONLY licensed mechanic.
So when I get a call at the end of their work day saying that both my rear calipers are seized and my quote for a brake job has expanded from $200 to $750, the pro's must be right ??,... I thought they had a system called Mitchel that would tell them about removing a little bolt then turn the Allen screw ?,... I guess these unlicensed kids don't know how to work a computer or read ???,.. Oh well I've got $500 to spare,.. I like too how I'm charged for two cans of brake cleaner at full price when they installed new pads, rotors and calipers,.. I guess they used it to clean their hands,...

I'll take your advice and ignore these paragraphs

 

[Pwhite42]

I have had 3 alternators installed in 7 months in the 03 Protege 5. The original one lasted 10 yrs. The replacements have seized or not charged the battery. I'm told that the first 2 replacements are not carried by the store anymore. The new replacement went one whole day before the squealing started again and the charge light came on with the heat, headlights, and radio on. Anyone know a good Mazda mechanic in Central Massachusetts?