I have an 2004 4.3L Chevy. We had a decent size snow fall one night and it was the sticky snow and caused a lot of slush. I came home ...

I have an 2004 4.3L Chevy.

We had a decent size snow fall one night and it was the sticky snow and caused a lot of slush. I came home from work that night and went to work the next day I heard a noise like the belt was slipping. I've had this problem before and I always just used belt treatment stuff from Autozone and it always got rid of it. Now on my current truck that's not the problem. I'll spray it on the belt and the squeaking will go away for a minute and then come back. I wanna say it made it worse. I took it to my usually shop and they said they believe it's a bad bearing in the alternator. He suggested that I replaced the alternator and tensioner bracket pulley while I was at it since it had a little give. He quoted 372.00 out the door? That seems really high to me and I was wondering, what was all required to change the alternator. I've replaced the belt tensioner before and that was pretty simply.

Thanks Allan

If you've changed the tensioner before then you shouldn't have any more problems changing the alternator. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's just a hot wire, ground wire and a couple bolts holding it in. Just remember though before you do anything unhook your battery unless you want to crap yourself

Two bolts and a ground wire, one of the easiest thing to change

I just changed mine this summer... piece of cake. Just make sure it is the alternator that is going out, since they aren't cheap. There's lots of other things that can cause the squeaking under the hood (like a bad water pump ).

agree with checkin to make sure its the alt, heck pull it off take it down to an auto zone and they will test it for free!...that squeeling could also just possiblly be a glazed over serpintien belt!

Take the belt off and manually spin the alternator. If it has a bad bearing you should be able to feel/hear it when you trun the pulley by hand (most times, but not always). If it checks out ok try replacing just the belt to see if it was just the belt.

The cost is the markup on the part. Reman alternator will run, I'm guessing, about $160 or so with about a $30 core charge included. Parts markup runs about 50% or so and there you go....$320 plus an hour of labor.

Like everybody else says, do it your self ....it's *real* easy.

Yeah....I have a bearing starting to make some noise under my hood too. I heard the same noise coming from one of the shuttles I was driving shortly before the alternator failed. I took the belt loose and turned everything I could, but couldn't feel anything. I had the bearing go out on the tensioner pulley, and it was making the same sound right before it disintegrated...

Thanks for the replies.

I took off the serpentine belt and spun the alternator and you could hear a little squeak in it. So i'm hoping that fixes it. If not I can always just put the old one back on and go from there.

The alternators are notorious for bearings going out in them. If you hear the squeek while turning it by hand, I'd say it's a 99% chance that's the problem.