Serpentine Belts

Its probably your water pump, which pumps coolant through the engine block to cool it down.

You take out the radiator from the top, fairly simple to do, but yes you need tools, then you draw a picture of which way the belt goes around the pullies, without this you wont figure out which way to put the new one on, then you put your new belt in and bolt the radiator back.

about... well cost of a replacing timing belt is about... £88.93

It is squealing because it is loose or worn out. Tighten it and if that does not help, replace it. If it is a serpentine belt, just replace it and check to make sure the idler tensioner is working properly.

Remove the belt. Remove the bolt in the center of the spring. Remove the tensioner. Reverse to replace.

Rick

I'm a retired ASE Master/L-1 Technician. I still keep current with the latest automotive technology. Visit my blog for cool articles and TSB's: http://free-auto-repair-advice.blogspot.com

Go to this website and enter your car info. Find the belt, then click on "routing"

http://www.mvreader.com/multiview/dayco/index.php?bgInterchange=1&l=n

I'm a retired ASE Master/L-1 Technician. I still keep current with the latest automotive technology.

either the belt is worn to the point of breaking or its very loose

There is a spring loaded tensioner that holds the tension on the belt. Get a wrench that fits the nut on the tensioner and apply alot of clockwise pressure that will losen the tensioner and allow the belt to go on and off.

Hi, If you have the 3.0 v6 engine, it's pretty easy. The power steering belt is actually the serpentine belt, the large belt with the grooves. Everything runs off this except for the air conditioner which has it's on v-belt. You will need to remove this belt first because it's in fron of the serpentine belt. If you look under the top coolant hose or under the distributor cap, there is a plastic cover. The cover has the diagram printed on it. If it is faded or unable to read, just take a pencil and paper and draw all pully's and the way the belt is routed. There is a belt tensioner pulley which you will have to loosen before the belt can be removed. This requires a special tool or sometimes you can get away with a tire iron or something narrow but rigid enough to loosen the tensioner. Slip the belt off and then start from the bottom with the new one and just work your way around all the pully's. It takes some patience but pretty easy to do.

The belt usually has a clip or ring that is on the left side (as it's worn) of the belt buckle. Before putting the belt on, put the length of the belt through that clip, then put the belt on. The small nub you'll find on the right side (as it's worn) of the belt buckle will go into a free hole to keep the belt buckle in place. If you have a detachable belt buckle such as a western belt, then the belt and the buckle are sold separately. If that is the case, then the belt will have a snap that will open the end. The buckle has a metal ring on the inside that the end of the belt will go through.

You dont adjust the tension on a serpentine belt, Dodge uses a spring loaded tensioner located just below the alternator, If your belt is loose it is either worn, the wrong size belt or your tensioner has frozen and not moving. If it is a brand new belt I would suggest making sure the correct one was given to you from the auto parts store. If the belt has been on the vehicle for an extended period of time I would suggest replacing it.

When changing the serpentine belt is it important to have a diagram to make sure the remove and installation are done properly. A serpentine belt for a BMW 2001 540i can be found in the car's maintenance manual.

Yet another fine example of A JOB THEY DON'T WANT TO DO, so it's priced accordingly. From start to finish, INCLUDING THIS WEB PAGE, this took me less than 30 minutes.

I suggest the following:

LONG 14mm box wrench

3/8" ratchet with LONG swivel extension, or universal joint

14 mm REGULAR 6 pt socket head (a deep socket is too long for this job).

Jack up car. Support on jack stands. Remove any splash guards who's tabs have no already busted off on your Quest (crappy design).

Untighten with the long box wrench, the 14mm nut from the idler pulley.

Then, from the top, loosen the slackening bolt.

The pulley may be rusted in place a bit -- take a hammer from the bottom and give the bottom of the idler pulley some SQUARE taps...should loosen it up.

Now, if loose enough, remove the belt (if not, slacken more from the top). Remove the belt and replace.

A very nice GoodYear GATORBACK belt runs $12 or so from Checker or any other parts store. This is a 10 minute job, honestly -- for less experienced DIYs, it will take a bit of time, but it's a great job to start learning as it is VERY simple. My guess is Nissan is charging you $80 for 1 hour of labor (no 1/2 hours) and $50+ for the parts + $20 for a smile when you pick it up after leaving your car ALL DAY for them to get to it.

$150 for this job is a total, complete and utter joke. I guess it would be a wee-bit tougher if you are also doing the PS belt, but I checked my PS belt and it is like new with no dryness or cracking, whilst my serpentine (AC/Alternator) was horrible and has been for some time.

This is just a guess so take it with a grain of salt. I would buy a belt for the s10 without air conditioning and just bypass the air conditioning pump.

It's not actually a square hole, rather a square bolt head. I had this issue when a pulley fell of my sable a while ago. It's right in the middle of the tensioner. I ended up having to use a serpentine belt tool because I had maybe 2" of space between the wheel well and the actual bolt. Leverage is key

go to NAPA Auto Parts and get the proper size belt. Get a ratchet with a socket that fits the tensioner along the drive belt path. It's the pulley that looks like it's just sitting there, not doing anything. Put the socket on it. Either pull or push. Whatever way works, it will relieve tension on the belt as long as you have it pushed down. You can pull the belt off. Put the new belt on around everything but the tensioner. Make sure the routing is correct! There's a sticker by your radiator that should have a diagram. push the tensioner down and slide the belt onto it. It may not be easy. And if you can, get your belt from NAPA Auto Parts. They have high quality belts there that won't stretch. It may cost you like 25 bucks, though. It's well worth it.

If you mean Toyota Corolla it has a timing chain. No maintenance is required.

>Hey Darlene==Use a wrench on the bolt through the idler pulley to raise up on the pulley and take the tension off of the belt. There should be a schematic for the routing of the belt on the fan shroud, If not, draw one before you remove the belt. Don't rely on memory. GoodluckJoe

Comments from KenJudy: Hi. I just had to replace the alternator on my daughter's 1997 2.2 liter Chevy Cavalier. "GoodluckJoe" gives good advice but here are some details that I figured out thay may help. For mine the idler pulley is the one depicted as an X below. Using a 15MM wrench on the bolt in the middle of the idler pulley clockwise loosens tension on the belt. The only way I could get the belt back on was to put it on the idler pulley last.

0 O

X O

O O

serpentine belt

---------------

( 0-1 O-2 )

------- ----

X-3 ) ( O-4

----- --

( O-5 O-6 )

-----------

0-1 power steering

O-2 alternator

X-3 idler pulley

O-4 water pump

O-5 main crankshaft

O-6 air condioner

Regards,

KenJudy

Very good drawing from KenJudy, I looked at mind and had a time till I got it right. Some car shops store will lend out tools if you can find one ask for a serpentine wrench. It's the greats little tool you need, basicly it's a flat bar with a socket on the end. You use the 15mm socket and just put it on the bolt in the middle of the idler pulley and then pull towards the front of the car. Slip the belt off the smooth pulley and release the pully slowly. Pull the belt out and get the new one in place, then pull the wrench towards you again. There is a spring inside the motor you can't see. You may have to just hook it on the power steering pulley abit and move the wrench to pull it again. Once it's on all the pulleys are lined up just release the pully slowly. Get all your stuff out of the way and get the car a quick turn over and check every pulley, if everything looks good start the car. Just let it run for abit, and there you go. I bought a serpentine wrench at a discount auto store for $12. I'll keep the old belt and the wrench in my trunk just in case.

Cheers

Handy63

hello this is Mark the moast important part in changing the serpentine belt is the SERPENTINE WRENCH without it you wont be able to get the tension off belt because you think there is not enought room to get it off with a rachet or wrench

The belt is self adjusted by way of a tensioner.

Yes. It is a dummy pulley, its only purpose is to keep the belt in place and tight.

This is the timing belt, I think. Takes a lot of expertise. Get the shop manual. If you screw it up, you can damage the engine.

It depends if you want to adjust the belt that does the a/c and power steering, or the one to the alternator. The power steering goes this way. First loosen the hex screw running through the power steering pump bracket. Then loosen the bracket hex screw that attaches to the belt tensioner bolt under the power steering pump. Then, tighten the tensioner hex screw that runs through the tensioner bracket. After you finish the adjustment, tighten all hex screws. If you adjust the belt for the alternator. You must loosen the alternator bracket hex screws on both the top and botom of the alternator. This requires going under the vehicle. Then, loosen the tensioner bracket hex screw and adjust the tensioner hex screw that runs through that. When you get the propper tension, tighten all screws and you are done.

Have 2008 escape with 105 k. still no need to change. Have Chev s10 with 150k Still original. if drving close to home wait til it breaks.

well i know on my 94 blazer it turns in the opposite direction.

You need Bentley publisher's repair manual for the A4. It's about $75, but worth every nickel.