Ever since I got my Miata about a year ago the belts have made a quiet cricket like chirping sound at idle. Not loud enough to hear in the car with the top up, but just loud enough to be annoying with the top down. Last night while checking them over to today's track day I decided to hit them with some belt dressing spray that I've had sitting on the shelf unused forever. That quieted them right down (both were making a little bit of noise), no problem right?
Wrong. This morning when I fired it up to drive in to work there was a new louder noise, more like a high pitch hiss that sounds like it's coming from the power steering/AC compressor belt, or possibly the power steering pump itself. The belt looks fine physically, and the power steering pump pulley has no play. I didn't spray the pump or pulley directly with the dressing so I doubt any got into the bearings. It is possible I got an uneven coat on the belt, but I'm obviously reluctant to try to put more on. I'm not sure I have time to replace the belt before the event this afternoon.
Thoughts?
Thanks
Belt dressing is the spawn of the debbil. If you need it, you have other issues.
Take the belts off, wash the pulleys, replace the belts with new, and either find which pulley is slightly out of line, or turn the radio up.
Guess I'll blow out of work and try to replace the belt...
I replaced the belts on my otter when I bought it and developed squealing belts. I discovered that the old school v-belts want to be TIGHT. I'm used to self adjusting serpentine belts that are actually pretty loose, Miatas want very tight belts.
Of course that's just my experience, YMMV.
Belt dressing makes things worse. I recently found out the hard way that unlike multi-groove belts, V-belts are very sensitive to imperfect pulley surfaces, which will rapidly eat the belt. Make sure your pulley surfaces are sanded/acid dipped shiny before using. I got knocked out of an offroad rally by a thin layer of tarnishing 
it works great for tire shine at drift events
Back in the 80s I was doing ag-chem R&D. We had an old Massey Harris combine with wide flat drive belts. Whenever it would start slipping a co-worker would hose down the main belt with belt dressing. That started my hate affair with belt dressing.
Belt dressing is just for changing the pitch of the noise.
It works great on my lathe belts. I've never had any luck with it on automotive belts. Make sure the belts aren't bottoming out in the pulleys.
belt dressing saved me once, long time ago the A/C compressor on my 944 seized snapping the belt. drove to a close by napa with no alternator. found the shortest belt to go around the crank and alt bypassing the a/c (the a/c is the tensioner). it was still to big and slipping, used belt dressing and it worked. Actually I drove like that for a week waiting for the a/c delete bracket to come in. Never touched the stuff again
A heavy duty mechanic I know recently told me that Orange Crush (specifically orange, do not use grape) is a fantastic belt dressing.
I've been waiting until I get a squeaky belt on something so I can try it.
Belt dressing sucks and never works.
Take a dab of dielectric grease and smear it on the belt about 2-3in up and down. Works freaking fantastic on serp belts, not tried on v belts.
Before that though, use a wire brush to clean the belts and pulleys while running. Carefully!
ssswitch wrote:
A heavy duty mechanic I know recently told me that Orange Crush (specifically orange, do not use grape) is a fantastic belt dressing.
I've been waiting until I get a squeaky belt on something so I can try it.
I have also heard that you can hold a bar of soap to the belt to get it to quiet down, just watch those fingers 
The only belt dressing tip I have is... Make sure it matches your shoes.
$50 later I had 2 new NAPA belts. These are the flat, ribbed type. Relpacing them wasn't so bad, only burned and cut myself a little. 
It went so fast I even had time to fix that ratty AC pressure switch plug I've been meaning to get to for a year. All quiet now. 
Ah....no more chirping in the drive thru line.
I had bad luck with the parts store brand solid ribbed belts. Always seemed to squeak after about a thousand miles. Switched to a double the money Goodyear "Gatorback" that was serrated instead of traditional ribbing. Noise gone.
spitfirebill wrote:
Belt dressing is the spawn of the debbil. If you need it, you have other issues.
Addendum: You never need it. Any issue that it may seem to resolve, only gets made worse, so the only winning use is not to use it.
Belt noise can be an annoying thing to resolve. Some vehicles just don't like some brands. I never had any luck with anything but Continental belts on my VWs. We know from experience that you use OEM belts and only OEM belts on Hyundai 2-liters if you want them to be quiet. Things like that.
Another one of the ways in which Altrom is your friend and why you should shop at NAPA.
I have a Ford van with a chirping belt. I don't drive it much so I really didn't care to change it out. I did check the belt and it looked OK, the alignment was also OK. I added belt dressing and it would quiet it for only a minute or two before it came back.
Finally I bought a new belt and replaced it. No more chirp.
A mechanic showed me that belt dressing can lead to belt stretching. Softens the rubber.
What I've learned from this thread is that belt dressing would be better served to coat the tires with. You get the initial stickiness of it and the possibility of it softening the rubber, win/win.
You gotta clean the pullies with naptha and a wire brush.
