How do you change the serpentine belt on a 2001 olds alero 3.4L V6?

Answer 1

Tools needed - 24" long 3/8" drive, 18mm socket, 12" extension for the socket, Jack stands w/ 2 bricks, Hydraulic jack, 2x4 wood, 12" long, An xtra hand for about 10 minutes 1/2 to 3/4 hour of time Complexity level - 5-7 out of 10 Patience factor - 6 out of 10 Best advice - Go to a mechanic unless you are one (guess you are not if you're here...) Anyway, the belt itself is very easy to get off - the belt tensioner toward the back of the motor on the passenger side can easily be pushed / pulled with a 3/8" socket drive, if you have one that is about 24" long. If your wrench is shorter, a 2' pipe would be useful. Now we have the belt off the pulleys, but getting it off the car and putting the new belt on is a bit more involved. The path the belt follows on it route is all the way around the passenger side motor mount. The tactic I used to manage this was to put the front of the car on jack stands (make sure you put bricks behind the back wheels). Then I put my hydraulic jack under the engine to support it. I used a 2x4 block of wood about 12" long running cross ways. Jack the block up to the bottom of the engine. The area it rests on is the oil pan so be very careful. Make sure the wood is resting solidly against the bottom of the motor, because next you will loosen (but not completely remove) the bolts holding the motor from the mount on the passenger side of the car. The bolts to loosen will be the ones closest to the motor on the mount. They are also the most accessible, I think they are 18mm heads. After I created about 1/2 to 1" slack in the bolts, but not taken them out, I let the jack down slightly. If it ends up resting on the bolts, so much the better... the engine will stay aligned with the mount during the next step. You will have created a gap of about 1" that the belt can be worked through, but the motor mount bolts are still in the way. Make sure the jack is again able to support the motor and once your comfortable that the engine is supported, you can remove the motor mount bolts the rest of the way. Now you have a channel to work the belt through. The rubber side of the mount itself can be pushed back a bit to give you more room to pass the belt through on the way out and the way back in. I worked the belt off, through the 1/2" really narrow channel and put the new belt on through the same narrow path. I then put the motor mount bolts back in and tightened them down all the way. Getting the belt to follow the proper pulley path was not a big deal, but I need 3 hands, my girlfriend really did help out here. It'll sound pretty wierd, but I;ll do my best to explain the path - there is a diagram on the belt shroud on the top of the motor - if yours has not been knocked off by an errant belt; mine was, but I found it and repaired it with epoxy. Start at the bottom front and around the bottom middle drive pulley. Wind around the top front and let her hold it with a bit of tension at the top front. You now have to work it around the bottom back pulley to the front middle pulley on your way to the tensioner toward the back of the motor. Once I had it this far, pulling the tensioner far enough back and getting it on the rest of the pulleys was a snap. Hope this helps... the ear;lier answer was juuuust a bit incomplete with about a paragraph or two of instruction. The task took me about 2 hours - 1 1/2 hour of figuring all the stuff I just shared with you out and about 1/2 hour of real work, including setting the jack stands and cutting a fresh piece of 2x4 wood.