Dodge Ram noisy belt or.............worse?

The serpentine belt on our 2000 1/2 ton Dodge Ram was making a little noise. My husband sprayed some Prestone belt dressing on it and now there's a new and much louder noise. It increases with throttle.

Description of noise: Best way I can think of to describe it is sort of like the sound that cards might make when attached to the spokes of a bicycle wheel. If you ever did that as a child, you'll know what I'm talking about.

This morning the belt made just the usual minor squeaking. About a mile down the road, the loud rattling noise returned.

Is is possible to spray the belt dressing on inncorrectly to cause this sound? Is it more likely that the noise is something else entirely? Appreciate any insight you can provide. After Christmas shopping, we're tapped out for auto repairs.

Ok, the belt tensioner on your truck is automatic.
You cannot adjust it as it is spring loaded to tension your belt. The belt dressing does nothing but make a mess and make things worse.

Sounds like you have a bad bearing somewhere.
Usually it is the idler or tensioner pulley that makes a squalling and sometime the clacking/slapping sound. It could also be the a/c compressor.

I would start with replacing the belt, then the tensioner and idler.

I have seen this on a few Dodges, usually the new belt and tensioner and idler pulleys take car of it. Do them one at a time, that way you aren't replacing stuff you don't need to replace.

Check to make sure its not the fan is not hitting the shroud. Since the shroud is plastic it can be bent back into place if its an issue.
What you need to do is try tightning the tensioner pulley on the belt. Spraying belt dressing on a loose belt will only make it worse because if it is too loose it will still want to slip and the dressing will add more friction and that = more noise. It depends on how many miles it has, but the tensioner could be bad. I recommend buying a new belt and tensioner pulley for around $50 bucks. It depends on how mechanicly inclined you are, but it is not very hard. I also recommend getting a haynes manual for your truck for around $15 at autozone and such. Hope this helps!!
you might consider changing the belt itself, I personally don't think that tightening the belt or putting some chemicals in it will help in anyway, the worse thing about this is that your truck will probably have one belt for everything that moves your truck equipments as your A/C, Power steering, cooling fan, Etc, think for just one minute.
If this belt brakes in half in the middle of a nice trip, you will eventually have no A/C, no Power Steering, and your fan will not longer be cooling your truck causing the engine to overheat and BOOM!, Nice Christmas gift spending thousands of dollars to repair a damage that would've been fix with a couple of bucks.
So, think twice before ending on the side of the road with a nice Christmas gift.
Good Luck!
take off belt. spin alternater,idler pulley,water pump by hand. most likely the plastic pulley.
experiance
IN ADDITION TO THE OTHER ANSWERS NEVER PUT BELT DRESSING ON A SERPENTINE BELT. IT WILL RUIN IT.

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