Serpentine Belts

There is only one serpentine belt and it has an automatic tensioner. It doesn't need to be "adjusted"

because it's slipping. tension or replace.

If it is a 3.8 there will be a tension pulley at the center of the engine. if you are standing on the right side of the car (P/S) That pulley will have a 1/2 ratchet slot in its center. Taking your 1/2 ratchet handle place it in the slot (to make this a bit easier I use some type of extension, be it a bar or a large box end wrench. Lock the ratchet handle so that it will push towards the back of the car. This will take the pressure off of the tension pulley. You will now be able to remove the belt. Note: There should be a diagram of how the belt is to be placed on the or around the radiator. It would not be unheard of to find the diagram in your owners manual. It is worth a shot. Make sure that all the ridges of the belt are in the slots on the pulley's. Release the ratchet tension and there you have it. The information about the 1/2 ratchet is incorrect. The pulley has a nut on it. Get the correct socket size, place it on the nut with a 1/2" ratchet handle and do all the rest.

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.

To change belt?
Use a 1/2 inch breaker bar and pull to relieve tension

There should be at least one (or more) idlers. You can pry against the spring tension to move it/them & slip the belt off.

The manufacture Recommends every 60K. You should at the very least inspect it every 60K and expect to replace the water pump at the same time. They will usually go out soon after the new belt is put on. If the belt breaks you will be buying a new engine or rebuilding your current one.

Your belt should be checked for cracks or tears if you see these it should be replaced asap

the best is to bring your belt to the parts store, since it takes only 1 minute to remove it (you even can remove it on the parking lot :-)

Use a long breaker bar with a 3/8" or a 1/2" drive on it and insert the drive into the square on the tensioner,it should be easy to see, then release the tension on the belt,then remove the belt and install new belt then you can put the tensioner back on to the belt by moving the tensioner so the belt will slip on. Look on your radiator top support there is a diagram of how the belt goes around all the pulley's.

A PRACTICAL MAN'S SOLUTION. Go to the auto parts store buy about three feet of black vacuum rubber hose. position the belt as much as you can around the pulleys leaving a pulley at the top of the engine un-belted. loop the vacuum hose around the serpentine belt knot it and using a short piece of wood as a handle "position yourself" and pull the hose up and put it on the un-belted pulley.

Just did this on my 1998 Voyager, so should be the same. With the van on jacks or ramps, remove the plastic splash shield that is under the car (it covers the bottom pulleys). It's held with a couple of small bolts and a plastic button. You don't necessarily have to do this, but it helps to get the belt routed properly. Using an open end 15mm wrench on the tensioner pulley bolt, pull towrds the front of the van as if to tighten. This puts slack and you can slip the belt off the idler pulley. Let the tensioner back and you can then fish the old belt off everything else and pull it out. You will almost surely need to use a short cheater bar on the wrench to be able to pull against the tensioner. You can buy a tesnioner wrench for about $20 at the auto parts store and it may be worth it to you. After the old belt is off, route the new one in place over all the pulleys except the idler pulley. Using the wrench, pull the same as to loosen and then slip the belt on the idler. It will then be in place and you can check from top and bottom that it is on all the pulleys properly. Be sure it is in the grooves correctly on all pulletys and not off a groove or two. Replace the splash shield and you're done. I would recommend changing the tensioner while you are at it. It is tough to get to, but not as tough as it looks. Take off the belt and from underneath remove the nut on the back of the tensioner (it has a bolt running out from it's center that goes through the mounting hole). You can reach it with a 15mm socket and short extension, even though it looks impossible to get to. A lot of it will be by feel, since it is hard to see the nut while removing it. Pull the old tensioner out, put in new and slip on the new belt as above. It took me about an hour to swap the tensioner and belt.

Confirm that a routing diagram exists near water pump or RH strut tower or draw one.

Use a 3/8" ratchet or 13mm open-end wrench to releive belt tension and remove the belt.

Route the new belt correctly around all pulleys except water pump or Alternator (your choice.)

While holding the tensioner in the slack position, put the belt arount the last pulley.

Confirm routing and seating of belt.

Start engine.

Reconfirm routing and seating of belt.

Hyundai's as well as many other import vehicles don't actually have a "serpentine belt"..they have 3 smaller belts that run your a/c compressor (if you have a/c), your alternator and your power steering pump. Your alternator belt is your first so if you have to get to your a/c compressor belt it will require removing your alt. belt and p/s belt to get to it. This job is a little more trickier than a serpentine belt so if you aren't really mechanically I wouldn't mess with it.

Go to your local Chrysler dealer parts department and ask them if they can print a picture of it for you. Their catalog will show the belt routing when they look up the drive belt.

i just did one ,i went to the local auto parts store and asked for a copy of their belt book diagram. 9 times out of 10 they are free and a great way to fix it yourself.

Public Library.

Ok, you didnt specify which engine, but it really doesnt matter which engine or even which type of vehicle (to a point anyway). But generally this is a real simple job..ten minutes tops. 1. Locate the belt routing diagram under the hood in the engine compartment, if its not there, draw your own based on how your old belt routes. 2. Locate the belt tensioner pulley...on mine it has a 15mm bolt on it (damn metrics!). 3. Put the 15mm (or whatever size your bolt is) socket onto a breaker bar or a long ratchet , then put it onto the belt tensioner pulley bolt. 4.Push the pulley (in the direction as though you were trying to tighten the bolt)..this will move the whole spring loaded tensioner pulley assembly, so that belt gets very very loose). 5. HOLD the tensioner pulley in that position as you REMOVE the old belt (the longer the ratchet the easier this is as it gives you leverage, requiring less physical strength to hold the tensioner pulley in position) 6. Slip the new serpentine over all the pulleys saving the last pulley to be any smooth bore, non-ridged pulley (like the water pump pulley)...this will make the job...oh so easy... you will call your 10 year old daughter/sister out to do it for you next time! 7. take the pressure off the belt tensioner pulley and the belt should go tight (make sure the pulley is centered on EVERY pulley and follows the proper routing. WAH-LAH your done...Its that simple. I would rather change 10 serpentine belts than wash one cup or fold one shirt...its that easy.

No, a timing belt is a different belt than a serpentine belt. A timing belt or chain is used to ensure everything in the engine happens in the proper sequence or time relative to each other. A serpentine belt is a single belt used to provide mechanical power to a variety of engine parts outside the main block, including the oil and water pumps, the alternator, the power steering pump, and others; the exact list depends on the make & model of the car.

The serpentine belt is the rubber belt on the outside which runs your water pump, air conditioner, fan if its hooked up that way. The timing belt is actually a chain that times the valves to allow fuel in and exhaust out at the correct timing.

The serpentine belt drives the various accessories on your car (alternator, power steering, air conditioning, water pump). This should be changed periodically (average recommended replacement is every 4 - 5 years / 50,000 miles.

The 2002 Toyota Solara does not have a "serpentine" belt that turns all of the pulleys. It has one belt that runs the power steering and a second "generator drive" belt.

As long as the belt looks okay it should be alright. Check to see if there are lots of cracks in it. Also if it is starting to fray around the edges then it is time. Good luck.

usually the tensioner is the "pulley that is smooth and has no sides on it. It looks like a metal wheel. you should be able to put a wrench on it and pull it away from the belt.

The belt has an automatic spring tensioner and can not be "tightened".