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Re: When Do You Know To Replace The Tensioner Pulley? Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Wed, 16 Mar 2005 08:56:44
In Reply to: When Do You Know To Replace The Tensioner Pulley?, Pierre, Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:14:41 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The best way to determine if the tensioner or idler pulley is bad is to take the belt off, and spin the pulley. A good pulley will spin, but not much. There will also be little or no play. A bad pulley will spin quite freely, but will rattle. Turning it with your hand, you'll feel a little 'grit'. A very bad pulley will have lots of play and not spin easily.
Without removing the belt, about the best you can do is listen. I use a piece of 1" heater hose, one end held to my ear the other near the pulley center. If you can locate a loud noise from the pulley, it's bad. Yes, that is subjective - what is 'loud'? But a good pulley is pretty quiet. But by the time a pulley has gotten to the point where it is anywhere near failure, it should be making quite a racket. Maybe not enough to know outside the car, but definately if you use the hose 'stethescope.'
If you can actually see the pulley move in any axis but spin, the bearings are bad.
The tensioner pulley is a little harder, because the axis moves due to the tensioner shock. So I would look for a twisting movement. If you see that, you should probably be able to hear it.
Now, the tensioner shock is a different matter. When the engine is running, it is normal to see the tensioner pulley move forward and back just a little - less than 1/8 inch, maybe 1/16. A 'jiggle' fore and aft. But that is the whole assembly, not just the pulley. If the load changes, like the AC compressor clutch kicks in or out, the whole assembly will shift about 1/4 inch or more. That is normal. If it moves quickly and smoothly to the new location, doesn't overshoot, and resumes its small 'jiggle,' all is well. If it overshoots, oscillates back and forth and then settles down, the tensioner shock is bad.
I like replacing the serpentine belt every 30K miles. At that point, I check the pulleys while the belt is off. They should be fine, but things do fail early on occasion. At 60K, the pulleys should still be OK - looser than new, but not ready to fall off. However, I don't trust them to make it to 90K. Since I don't want to pull the belt off at 75K just to check the pulleys, I simply replace the pulleys at 60K. It isn't worth the extra effort to squeeze another 10 or 20K out of them.
And as to the rear brake caliper, I screw it in until I meet resistance ,and then back it off 1/2 turn.
posted by 192.249....
, Wed, 16 Mar 2005 08:56:44 <-- Viewing This Message, Thu, 17 Mar 2005 08:16:57
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