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Generally, you replace the belt if its frayed or cracking. There is also a stretch indicator on the tensioner, to show when belt is stretched too far and should be replaced.
The tensioner, and idler pully, you generally replace those when they make noise. Its a good idea whenever you have the belt off, to give both of these a spin, to see how smoothly the bearings feel and to check for noise.
Note you can replace just the bearings, instead of the whole pully. Way cheaper. Just have to be careful hammering the bearings not to put pressure on the pully, as its surprisingly fragile. Of course, you always press in a bearing with pressure only outer ring.
If you see the tensioner moving back and forth rapidly, replace it, if the bearing makes noise, replace it. Be careful it's easy to crack the pulley.
There's zero chance you can get the belt routing wrong. The water and idler pulleys are smooth, so they take the smooth side of the belt, the other pulleys are ribbed they take the ribbed side of the belt. The belt looks like an hourglass when it's installed correctly, the tensioner alternator a/c and crank pulleys are the edges, and the idler and water pump pulleys give it the hourglass shape.
Thanks for the writeup - I just did this on the 2003 w/86k miles using an OEM belt. What a PITA it was...
Old one came off no problem, the new one would not go on no matter what I tried and kept popping off the bottom two pulleys while I tried to get it over the idler pulley. Eventually I took out the airbox and 5 minutes later, it was in. The secret was to install it on all the pulleys except the one below the alternator (water pump?), leave it slipped off slightly. Now that you have it on all the pulleys but the one, keep torque on the tensioner and it's a simple job to reach down and push it in where it belongs - much easier than getting it over the damn ridge on the idler pulley.
So my car makes a loud rattling noise on cold start ups. I thought it was the valve train. It was pointed out to me that it could possibly be the belt tensioner.
This is the noise I hear every morning, I thought it was my valve train -
Close up of belt tensioner that I can see moving at the base when I rev the motor but you can't really tell in the video. Appears to be the source of my noise -
And the picture is the tensioner markings that it sits at currently. 176K on my odometer. No idea if belt or tensioner has been changed. Belt looks to be in good shape. Any insight is appreciated.
I have stupidly removed my tensioner pulley without taking note of its orientation. One side has the bearing sat flush and the other it is recessed a little - which side faces the engine and the air box?
I have stupidly removed my tensioner pulley without taking note of its orientation. One side has the bearing sat flush and the other it is recessed a little - which side faces the engine and the air box?
After not finding an answer I discovered that the bearing is in fact central to the pulley so it's position is the same whichever way around it is fitted. There's probably a right/wrong way but I took a guess and put the dirty side out, cleaner side in.
After not finding an answer I discovered that the bearing is in fact central to the pulley so it's position is the same whichever way around it is fitted. There's probably a right/wrong way but I took a guess and put the dirty side out, cleaner side in.
Makes sense with the dirty side out. I paid close attention when I did mine and found the outer face of the pulleys were dirty. On a related note, I used a gates belt and figured at 60k miles and 16 years that the grease in the idler and tension pulley would be done so decided to just change them anyway. The bearing in the tensioner pulley turned out to be absolutely shot, a lot of play and grinding like it was full of gravel (surprisingly it only made noise on startup). The replacement pulley I ordered (also by gates) didn't fit at all (too wide, but as others have mentioned the bearing is identical size to the Honda OEM pulley requirement) so I simply switched the bearings (a 36mm socket I had lying around for the axle nut on my motorcycle fit perfectly... and a hammer, because I'm ghetto that way). In hindsight I would not have purchased replacement pulleys, but just ordered a pair of SKF 6203 2RSH bearings (a fully double contact sealed bearing which is rated to 12000 rpm)... these are pricey, but are engineered to be significantly superior to anything else. No I don't work for SKF, their bearings are just amazing!
I did however notice the slightest bit of up/down movement in the tensioner with the new belt/pulleys (with the engine running obviously) which I assume is normal and was only about half a mm. So to everyone who has said "the belt tensioner doesn't move, so how can it make noise" I believe if your tensioner was really toast that tiny bit of movement (it is a spring loaded device after all) might be enough to create a noise, maybe.
The belt is rubber. The loads it drives vary. AC compressor, alternator, etc, can have increases or decreases in load. So it would make sense for the belt to flex and stretch, expand and contract. Not a lot, but still some. So the tensioner responds in kind to keep the belt taught.
So it makes sense you can even see the tensioner move around a bit as engine runs.
The belt is rubber. The loads it drives vary. AC compressor, alternator, etc, can have increases or decreases in load. So it would make sense for the belt to flex and stretch, expand and contract. Not a lot, but still some. So the tensioner responds in kind to keep the belt taught.
So it makes sense you can even see the tensioner move around a bit as engine runs.
True that! Although after a couple hundred miles the movement has all but disappeared... it's like it needed some time to wear the belt in.
07-31-2016, 08:33 AM
