Squealing and Rubber Shavings on Alternaotr/Water pump

[newdude1]

Very randomly the car will squeal very loudly then I will go away. And arould the alt/wp/crank pullley there is like a coat of rubber shavings. Is this just the belt going bad or could it be something is miss alined?

[turninheadz]

could be a misaligned or seized pulley. take off the belt and check all the pulleys

[OnTheChip]

Probably a bad alternator bearing.

[dbeiler]

Is the belt in good condition and is it set to the proper tension?

[newdude1]

The belt has good tension but feels pretty ruff on the sides. Im going to be taking it off this week and having a better look. How would I tell if the bearings are bad? Wobble or wiggle room in the pulley?

[SexOnWax]

Definitely check all pulleys and belt tensions first. I ran into the same thing last fall. It turned out the bearing on the idler pulley (the one between the crank and A/C compressor pullies) seized up and caused a few grooves on the inside of the belt to shred away and leave little black rubber bits in my engine bay.

[turninheadz]

How would I tell if the bearings are bad? Wobble or wiggle room in the pulley?

Yup, pretty much. Grab the top and bottom of the pulley and quickly wiggle it. See if there is any movement. Also, spin the pulleys to see if they are spinning freely. Any grinding/binding type noises or it slowing down too quickly means you need to replace the bearing or if you'd rather, the whole pulley assembly.