Irresolute a Motorcar Serpentine Belt

With the correct tools, irresolute a drive chugalug is easier than you call back!

Fourth dimension

An 60 minutes or less

Complication

Beginner

Toll

$51–100

Introduction

Automatic chugalug tensioners, standard in nigh cars at present, brand changing a serpentine chugalug a simple DIY repair. Follow the articulate photos and step-by-step instructions and y'all'll be done in 15 minutes.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Premium serpentine belt
  • Tensioner (if needed)

Overview: Fan belt replacement

If you're old plenty to think the skillful old days when you inverse your ain fan belts, and so you can also call up the hobbling knuckles and cursing that went along with it. And to make matters worse, there were often two or three belts to change.

At present, instead of dissever belts for each component, nearly cars today use a single wider, multigrooved "serpentine" belt (aka as serp belt), named for the way information technology snakes effectually multiple pulleys.

Serpentine chugalug replacement is piece of cake considering today'due south automatic drive chugalug tensioners eliminate the demand to loosen bolts or pry components into position for retensioning. Just rotate the tensioner, remove the old belt and install a new one. When the belt ribs are seated into the pulley grooves, release the tensioner and y'all're done.

Projection step-by-step (eleven)

Stride 1

Fan belt replacement: Bank check the tensioner beginning

tensioner

Check for excessive motion

A "good" tensioner arm should showroom just a slight vibration with almost 1/32 in. or less of arm movement. And the chugalug should run smoothly with no visible vibration. If the tensioner arm exhibits a jerky vibrating move, the chugalug vibrates, or the tensioning arm moves 1/4 in., the tensioner is bad.

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Step ii

Cheque for smoothen rotation with a serpentine belt tool

Snap a long-handled ratchet or a serpentine belt tool into the square 1/2-in.-drive or iii/eight-in.-drive opening. Or use a socket on the hex-shaped protruding nut. Slowly rotate the tensioner arm as far every bit it volition turn. And then release the tension. Feel for bounden and creaking in both directions.

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Step 3

Cheque the pulley/roller

roller

Rotate the tensioner and slide the drive chugalug off the pulley/roller. Then plough the pulley/roller and experience for resistance, binding and roughness. Then spin it and listen for rumbling. If it doesn't spin spin smoothly or has a rough surface, replace it.

If your tensioner is bad and information technology'due south 1 of the more hard styles to supersede, you won't want to waste your time irresolute the belt. The shop would only take to remove the belt again to supersede the tensioner. So bank check the tensioner commencement with these three tests.

The offset exam is a visual inspection with the engine running to appraise the dampening feature of the tensioner. Pop the hood, outset the engine and turn on the AC. And then shine a lite on the belt tensioner and discover the tensioner arm roller for excessive move (Photo one). If it passes the visual test, movement on to the "crank" test (Photo two). The tensioner arm should rotate smoothly during creepo and release with no binding. If the travel isn't smooth, supplant the entire tensioner. Side by side, check the condition of the tensioner arm caster/roller (Photograph 3). If the caster or roller exhibits any roughness, binding or noise, that is besides cause to replace the unabridged tensioner.

Many tensioners are readily accessible and attach to the engine with a single commodities. To supervene upon that style, merely remove the serp belt and then the retaining commodities. Pull off the former tensioner, noting the location of the locking pin on the back. And then slide the new unit into place, lining upward the locking pin with the hole in the engine. Hand-tighten the bolt and then tighten information technology with a torque wrench to the factory specifications shown in your shop manual.

Step 4

How to tell if yous demand to exercise serpentine belt replacement

Mensurate wear with a guess

Press the gauge into a belt groove. As long as the gauge sits to a higher place the ribs, the belt is skillful. If it slides down so it's even with the rib, the serp belt is worn and must be replaced.

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Step 5

Measure wear with an app

Draw a line on the belt ribs with a argent permanent marker. Then shoot a photo with your smartphone. The app volition tell yous if the serp belt is expert or bad.

First-generation serpentine belts were made from a nitrile compound that cracked with use. If your drive chugalug has cracks in three or more adjacent ribs within a 1-in. span, or has four or more cracks per inch on a unmarried rib, it'south fourth dimension to supervene upon it. You also need a new belt if you lot notice any of these conditions: chunks missing from the rib area, torn or frayed fabric, glazing on the belt'southward back side or debris trapped in the ribs.

Starting with the 2000 models, carmakers switched from nitrile to ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) belts. EPDM belts last much longer and don't crack or lose chunks the way nitrile belts practice. Merely they practice vesture, and that wear is much harder to find. You tin can measure EPDM belt habiliment with a gauge or a smartphone app. Both products are available for free from Gates Corp. (go to gatesprograms.com/beltwear and click on either tool).

In virtually cases, you'll want to employ the plastic estimate to measure out your belt, equally shown to a higher place. Even so, if you accept a smartphone and enough maneuvering room to shoot a close-up photo (engine off), let technology practice the work for you. The app works by analyzing the width of the ribs compared with the width of the grooves.

Always buy premium belts instead of economy class—you lot'll become near twice the mileage.

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Step half dozen

The correct tools go far a do-it-yourself project

Follow the belt routing diagram

Examine the decal that shows the chugalug routing. If yours doesn't have 1, draw one before you lot commencement the job.

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Step 9

Place the new belt

belt

Using the serp belt placement tool, road the new belt around the belt path. Rotate the tensioner once more while y'all load the chugalug around it. Wrap the new belt around the crankshaft pulley, then around the grooved pulleys. Finish the task past sliding the belt onto a rounded, non-grooved roller. Double-bank check to make sure the belt is aligned with all the pulleys and that it follows the correct path. Slowly release the tensioner.

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Step xi

Serpentine belt tool and belt placement tool

tool

Cheap specialty tools profoundly simplify changing the serpentine belt. You can replace a serpentine belt with ordinary hand tools. Simply we don't recommend information technology. The spaces are often tight and the chugalug-driven devices hard to reach. Using a serpentine belt tool to loosen the tensioner and a belt placement tool to position the chugalug, nosotros completed the entire task in less than 15 minutes, without breaking a sweat (or a knuckle). The serpentine belt tool comes with an assortment of sockets, making information technology the perfect choice for all the cars in your family. The two extension bars can be configured to reach the tensioner at the proper angle, and the extra-long handle provides maximum leverage so you can release the pressure easily. The belt placement tool allowed us to remove and properly place the new chugalug without reaching downward into the pulley area.

Note: If your car requires the removal of an engine mount in order to remove the serpentine belt, or the belt's just nearly impossible to become at, nosotros recommend you lot get out the job to a professional person.

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Originally Published: May 13, 2019