WTF is this new noise my 3.4L is making.

Those Nachi bearings are great too if it is genuine. The Chinese have taken to ripping off the weirdest things lately, one of them being bearings.... the other being NipponChemicon capacitors. I've run into some duds so I try to buy items like this from approved retailers.

 

whoops i threw the old assembly away already. yeah i just figured it was such an easy fix that i wasnt too worried about doing it again in a few years if needed. plenty of other problems ill prob encounter by then.

 

My ‘02 is making the same exact noise. I was going to just buy the new idler pulley from Toyota, but when I called them this morning, they were having trouble giving me an exact part. He was asking if I was looking for the timing belt idler pulley, the a/c idler pulley, or something else. Can you all tell me which one, specifically, that it is? Maybe even a Toyota part number?

Thanks.

 

Yes, there are couple. a/c pulley that is adjustable to tension belt. Timing belt has 2, 1 between the cams and 1 on the auto tension.

 

If it's the AC idler pulley making noise, just cut the belt off and run it without it all winter and replace in the summer. I have had to do this a few times. I had that pull seize up and break the belt on the interstate, somehow it didn't break anything else, I got lucky on that one.
Road salt and sandy mud tears those pullys up around here.

 

Got my ac idler pulley ordered. Anyone have some pics or a video on how to replace it?

 

I don't know why you need a video - it's a simple job.

1. Remove the front rock shield. This part takes the longest.

2. Loosen the belt that goes around the pulley.

3 .Remove the bolt from the center pulley and remove the pulley.

4. Assuming you just want to replace the pulley, just mount it where the old one went.

5. Reinstall and tighten the bolt. I don't know the torque spec, I just tighten it tight with an 8-inch wrench.

6. Reinstall the belt and adjust its tension. If you wanna be anal about it, get yourself one of those belt tension tools to measure the belt's tension. In my 55+ years I've never bothered with it and I've never had a loose belt or a prematurely bad bearing.

7. Reinstall the front rock shield.