Sup guys and gals I have a dilemma with my 99 XJ that started yesterday morning and hopefully someone has a fix for it . Well Thursday morning I hop on the Jeep start it up and let it idle for about 3 minutes before taking off to work. About a mile down the road I stop at CVS to get a drink, come back out and when I start the Jeep there's a loud whine. First thing I do is turn the wheel both ways to see if it got louder but nothing. At the end of the day I started it up and the whine was still there. I took off got home and once I stepped out the Jeep I smelled hot, burnt rubber. Popped the hood and noticed the belt semi shinny and the pulleys were really shiny as well as the ribs on them. So today I took off the belt and spun all the pulleys and none had any resistance. I couldn't do any further inspections because some how when getting up from putting part of the belt around the alternator pulley I fractured my left knee cap I don't know how lol but yea. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

You'll probably want to fix that knee cap first. lol...question, were you using A/C at all? Sometimes the compressor clutch can seize and make horrible sounds and do bad things to your belt.

 

Oh yea no doubt about that lol, I have an appointment on Monday to see a specialist. And no I wasn't using the AC but I was using the Heater since it's cold out in the Mornings.

 

How did you check the belt for tightness? The general spec is to measure deflection along the longest run. You should be able to move the belt 1/8", at the most, which is pretty darned tight. Sorry about the knee.

 

I guess I checked at the wrong place. I checked in between the water pump pulley and the power steering pump pulley. And yes I was able to move the belt from what I believe more than 1/8" in that short run. Thanks, This constant throbbing pain sucks plus the Hydrocodon-Acetaminophen pills they prescribed me aren't doing nothing towards the pain.

 

I got one of these a while ago to check mine:
Krikit belt tension gauge


Apparently the tension on mine is way under spec, >100 lbs new belt should be 180, but no noise so I'll leave it.
The the way I originally installed it, was to start the motor and stab the gas if it squeals tighten a little, repeat.

Are you sure the pulley is not moving on the dampener?

 

I mean when I removed the belt all the pulleys spun freely. I did not feel any tension or signs of any being seized.

 

The dampener on the crankshaft is actually 2 pieces with rubber sandwiched in between. The rubber gets old & rots, then the dampener comes apart.

 

Oh, well I had bought a new harmonic balancer when I dropped in the new 4.0 in on March of this year.

 

It may be your blower motor. Mine will whine or grind randomly but, it still works great! lol

 

Does it still whine when you turn off the vents?

 

The whine still remains even after I turn off the heater. I think it's the Power Steering pump. Not 100% sure though.

 

did you try running the car after you had the belt removed? that would atleast confirm that it's in the accessory drive... did you check power steering fluid? does the noise change when you add electrical load... i/e head lights, rear defrost, blower motor, wipers. if you had your climate control set on (front)defrost it will activate the AC, so be sure that the AC is completely off.

 

No, that is one mistake I did of not running the Motor with the belt off. But now there's some noise when you turn the wheel to the left or right. I mean i can remove it again since it's not that difficult to remove.

 

how is the power steering fluid level? does it whine like a noisey p umo when you turn the wheel? or does the belt slip and the squeek when you turn the wheel?