[DavidB]

I just brought my boat in for annual service and the belt tensioner is squealing on one of my Volvo's.  I understand this might be a common occurrence.  Has anyone else had this issue?

[Maxwell]

Which motors do you have 500 or 600? Which belts do you have on the boat? Are they the green gates belts or the "new" gator backed VP belts? Do you still have the original plastic pulley's or the metal upgraded?

[DavidB]

IPS 600 with the upgraded metal pulleys. New VP belts.

I know that I am replacing one and I was going thru the invoices from the original owner and he did 2 replacements.

[Maxwell]

Hmm... I believe that there was a recall or bulletin on the tensioner years ago, however if you have the metal pulleys, it would lead me to believe that this has been addressed.  I had (expensive) alignment issues when I upgraded belts on our old boat to try to remedy the known squealing problem from new.  

Although I had negative experience and didn't get answers when dealing with VP, you may want to have a look at the below thread on the VP IPS website.  If you don't have one already, you may need to set up an account which is free.  

[Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]

[Chris Burkard]

I have run across this issue quite a bit over the last few years, even on boats with the upgraded pulleys. I am not sure exactly what is going on, but when we run across one like this, we call Volvo and they come out and usually replace the pulley's and belts. I have seen belts being replaced by owners with aftermarket belts (non Volvo) that seemed to be worse. According to a Volvo technician that I spoke with, the aftermarket belts begin squealing fairly quick for some reason.

I sold a 2008 Tiara 3900 Sovran not too long ago that had the issue and Volvo replaced the pulleys and belts and it performed flawlessly with no squealing issues.

Good Luck!

[DavidB]

The cause of the belt tensioner failure was found to be a dampener on a pulley in front of the tensioner.  The dampener had a wobble that caused the pulley to wobble causing the belt to wobble into the tensioner.  I believe the issue is fixed.