This past summer while chasing sprint cars all over the Midwest and East I began to hear what can be described as a chirping sound on startup and acceleration. Went to a Ford dealership in Indiana where the diagnosis was belt tensioner. Unit had 32,000 miles at this time. Replaced tensioner and belt, $389 later on my way. About 3000 miles later back comes the chirp. So we are on the road, but eventually get back to Indiana and return to dealership. Their diagnosis: "can't really be specific, but seems there is a lot of dust around the belt area". They suggest cleaning the area: tensioner, pulleys,etc for $500. My answer in short was see ya and drove home to Florida.
So after some research on various RV and Ford sites it seems this is a chronic issue. Further investigation finds that their are 2 different serpentine belt schematics. Mine has only 1 idler pulley on the passenger side of engine. Another schematic shows a second idler pulley on the driver's side on the longest unsupported part of the belt. There is a boss in the block where this pulley would have been. On many of the forums others have reinstalled this second idler pulley and said it solved the issue. It is not an expensive part, install seems pretty straight forward.
Just wondering if others have any experience with this issue and/or advice. Thanks
