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notquiteflotsam
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- Reaction score
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- Thunderbird Year
- 2004
I developed a squeak recently when I'd start Dad's Thunderbird and it would last until the engine warmed up. Chirping through the neighborhood certainly takes away from the cool factor so after a bit of research, I took a stab that it was the serpentine belt or one of the pulleys. However diagnosing this, and in particular, how to replace it, was very hard so I thought I'd post here on the procedure so others can find it. My other vehicle is a Jeep and those forums are great for a detailed explanation of how to DIY repair so I thought I'd add a writeup here that details what I did. The whole process took me less than 3 hours. And it could have been about a 90-minute job if I'd known all of this going into it. Hope you find it useful.
As background, Dad's has about 187000 miles on it. Here is a video with the squeak.
Since I was going to be in here, I decided I'd replace the pulley and the belt tensioner while I was at it. I didn't know if Dad had done that when he had the car. Moderator note- you can view the parts list click here.
The FSM says to remove the lower cover to get to the serpentine belt to replace it. I didn't put that page here because it's worthless and bad information. Once you remove it, you're met with a space in which only a middle school child could fit his/her arm into. And if you happen to have such a child, he/she won't have enough lead in their pants to release the pressure from the belt tensioner. So new plan...
It seemed I needed to remove the fan assembly. Fortunately, this isn't entirely required. I did disconnect the negative battery terminal. You will find it easier if you drain some of the coolant because you'll need to remove the hose that leads to the head later. There is a drain plug. It is on the passenger side and is a finger tight knob. Once loose, coolant will discharge a little straight down, but mostly out a horizontal drain. My finger is pointed at the plug. Note these hoses are in the way so the drain won't be clean. I drained about 3/4 a gallon and it was plenty.
Next up your back to the top of the engine. Remove the upper radiator shield. Here is the page from the FSM, Step 4 was the Aha moment, as I would find out:
Fortunately, you don't have to remove all of this. Only steps #1 and #2 in the below image - the brackets that hold the radiator in place - are all you need here. I think they were 8mm heads.
There is one on each side and in this photo, I'd already removed the both, setting one back where it goes for reference.
Back to that Step 4 I mentioned. Here is the reference page. I took the whole air assembly off, but I did not completely disassemble it as shown here.
To my delight, once the air assembly was out of the way, I only had to loosen that coolant hose right under my left hand in this picture. That gave wide open access to what I needed to get to. I had a buddy help hold the hose out of the way while I worked the old belt out. If you've never done it before, a 3/8 socket head fits into the belt tensioner. My 3/8 socket has a short handle so I used a cheater lead pipe (about 12") to get enough on it to loosen the belt tension. From there it was pretty straight forward. The belt pattern is below.
Obviously, reverse the process to put it all back together. And don't forget to put the coolant back in. There is actually a process for this that was more than I thought I'd need to do but the details are below.
Anyway - good luck if you try this. It was pretty easy in the end. And importantly, the squeak is gone!
As background, Dad's has about 187000 miles on it. Here is a video with the squeak.
Since I was going to be in here, I decided I'd replace the pulley and the belt tensioner while I was at it. I didn't know if Dad had done that when he had the car. Moderator note- you can view the parts list click here.
The FSM says to remove the lower cover to get to the serpentine belt to replace it. I didn't put that page here because it's worthless and bad information. Once you remove it, you're met with a space in which only a middle school child could fit his/her arm into. And if you happen to have such a child, he/she won't have enough lead in their pants to release the pressure from the belt tensioner. So new plan...
It seemed I needed to remove the fan assembly. Fortunately, this isn't entirely required. I did disconnect the negative battery terminal. You will find it easier if you drain some of the coolant because you'll need to remove the hose that leads to the head later. There is a drain plug. It is on the passenger side and is a finger tight knob. Once loose, coolant will discharge a little straight down, but mostly out a horizontal drain. My finger is pointed at the plug. Note these hoses are in the way so the drain won't be clean. I drained about 3/4 a gallon and it was plenty.
Next up your back to the top of the engine. Remove the upper radiator shield. Here is the page from the FSM, Step 4 was the Aha moment, as I would find out:
Fortunately, you don't have to remove all of this. Only steps #1 and #2 in the below image - the brackets that hold the radiator in place - are all you need here. I think they were 8mm heads.
There is one on each side and in this photo, I'd already removed the both, setting one back where it goes for reference.
Back to that Step 4 I mentioned. Here is the reference page. I took the whole air assembly off, but I did not completely disassemble it as shown here.
To my delight, once the air assembly was out of the way, I only had to loosen that coolant hose right under my left hand in this picture. That gave wide open access to what I needed to get to. I had a buddy help hold the hose out of the way while I worked the old belt out. If you've never done it before, a 3/8 socket head fits into the belt tensioner. My 3/8 socket has a short handle so I used a cheater lead pipe (about 12") to get enough on it to loosen the belt tension. From there it was pretty straight forward. The belt pattern is below.
Obviously, reverse the process to put it all back together. And don't forget to put the coolant back in. There is actually a process for this that was more than I thought I'd need to do but the details are below.
Anyway - good luck if you try this. It was pretty easy in the end. And importantly, the squeak is gone!
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