Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 14:55:50 -0500
Reply-To: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Re: Fan Belt Squeal
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> I found the reason my fan belt is squealing. First, you will recall that I
> recently replaced my oil breather hose? Well, it had a kink in it. I
> figured it would straighten out on its own. WRONG! Here are some things I
> noticed recently without taking the time to actually take a look at the
> engine: Some oil drips started appearing in my driveway. My engine
> started smelling more like what I thought was a characteristic Vanagon
> smell, a sort of burnt oil or rubber smell. The alarms should have been
> going off. Today I was out in the driveway smoking a cigarette and noticed
> what looked like oil spots on the back of the van. That did it. I popped
> open the back and looked at the engine. It's covered in oil! Well, that's
> why my belt's been squealing, obviously. I'm speculating that the kinked
> breather hose caused a buildup of pressure and has caused oil to blow out
> from somewhere, I'm not sure where exactly. I'll be going to my FLAPS
> shortly and see if we can't cobble together a better breather hose
> solution; perhaps put an elbow or something in that breather hose to
> straighten out the path and clear the kink.
Marc Perdue
> Marc Perdue wrote:
>
> >Okay, so the '87 Westy is the oldest vehicle I've owned in quite some
> >time, so I'm a little (make that a lot) rusty at these things. I
> >noticed that my fan belt (okay, it's not really a FAN belt, but you know
> >what I'm talking about) has started squealing over the past week or so.
> >I've also observed that a lot of cars' fan belts squeal more in the
> >winter time. Is this pretty much normal? Back in the old days, when I
> >had a Ford truck with 246,000 miles on it, was a student with negative
> >money, I'd just spray the sucker with belt dressing and be on my way.
> >Now that I'm an adult (sort of) with negative money, I'm curious if this
> >is still the best solution. My real question is this though: Is a
> >squealing fan belt necessarily an indication of a worn-out belt? I know
> >what to look for to figure out if a belt needs to be replaced, but it's
> >dark out just now and I'm basically lazy. On a vanagon, will a broken
> >fan belt destroy the engine?
> >
> >Okay, that's enough of the stupid questions for the moment. Thanks for
> >your support,
> >Marc Perdue
> >
> >
> >
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