Please Don't Use Deodorant To Fix Your Squeaky Car Parts
A recent TikTok trend has once again proved that you shouldn't blindly believe everything strangers post onto the internet. TikTok user erxc.z33 had found a belt merrily squeaking away in their Audi A4. Instead of replacing the belt, the user decided to grab a stick of Old Spice deodorant and gently placed it onto the squeaking belt. In the 10-second clip, the hack works and the squeaky belt stops making the awful sound.
@erxc.z33 Old spyce ✨ #audi #a4 #b5 #oldspyce #cars #fy #viral #shit #funny
The idea sounds great and easy, being able to use just about any stick deodorant to fix annoying sounds coming from your engine bay. However, reality is a bit different. Using deodorant may seem like it fixes your noisy belt, it can actually cause significant damage to the belt and other engine components. This is due to a number of reasons, but the main one is that the belts in your engine are meant to be dry. The belts in your engine need to be tight in order to maintain consistent friction and spin, as they help power different areas of your vehicle.
Damage from using deodorant on a squeaky belt
If you do use a stick deodorant to fix a squeaky noise coming from the belt in your engine, it will work for a short period of time. However, the end result will cause more damage to not only your belt, but many other parts of your engine. If you add moisture to a drive belt, it will actually cause more slippage to occur since there will be less friction when compared to the belt being dry. Once the belt begins slipping due to the moisture, the alternator will begin to fail.
Beyond the belt, deodorant is difficult to remove and will likely attach itself to other components that the belt runs through. Deodorant gets sticky as it heats up, and engine components tend to receive a decent amount of heat under use. Instead of adding deodorant to your drive belt, think about replacing it entirely. It's typically a pretty easy process that doesn't require an excessive amount of labor. Granted, many owners will likely forgo doing this themselves and will bring their vehicle to a mechanic. In that case the price will rise.
What to do if your drive belt is squeaking
If you've found that your drive belt is squeaking, it's something you may be able to resolve without too much effort. Open the hood, turn the car on, and determine exactly where the squeaking sound originates from. Once you've established the reason for the aggressively annoying sound, then you can form a plan of action to fix the issue.
Assuming the issue is the drive belt itself, simply replacing the belt should rid you of the squeaking sound. Typically, drive belts can live and be used for about 100,000 miles, though it's possible for issues to arise before that limit is hit.
If it's not the drive belt, the most likely culprit for a squeaky noise in your engine bay is the alternator. If that's the case, you should bring your vehicle into a mechanic to have them look at, diagnose, and fix the issue. If you have experience with wrenching and aren't afraid to get dirty, replacing an alternator can be done at home.