3rd Gen. Tacoma Serpentine Belt Replacement

What does the water test involve? My 2019 just started chirping. I'd like to rule out the idlers.

 

Interested I just put on my third belt at 155k miles, now I have a slight chirp in the morning ,but it goes away almost immediately.

 

44k , time to get a belt.

 

Much thanks for this. Never replaced a belt myself before and this write up helped me do it in 15 minutes! Local stealers wanted 400 and 265 respectively, NUTS.

 

I was having the same problem until I realized that I wasn't turning the tensioner far enough to get the allen key in the slot. You have to go pretty far.

Thanks OP for the great write up. I've never changed a belt before and it only took me about 20 mins using these instructions. No more chirp!

 

My '16 had an issue like this - mad squealing, then an intermittent chirp - around 30k miles, and the dealer diagnosed it as a belt or pulley issue. I decided to wait until it was a little older and replace the belt. At 52k miles I took it in and told the dealer (Karl Malone Toyota in Riverton, Utah) that I needed him to replace the belt. He quoted me $460 and I left the truck with him. About 30 minutes later he called to tell me the belt and pulleys were fine, and the noise was coming from the fuel injection system. A part - can't remember what, anymore - had a defective orifice and the fuel squeaked going through it. I was pretty happy to hear the belt was fine, but about passed out when he told me the replacement module was $1600 because I was past the 50,000 miles covered by a TSB.

I asked him what he could do, as I'd initially been led to believe the squeak was a belt thing, and he told me he'd call me back.

In less than 10 minutes he was on the phone with me telling me they would cover it under the TSB.

If you're in the Salt Lake/Utah County area, the guys in the service department at Karl Malone are decent and honest.

And, Amanhowzit, you may want to look at that fuel booster as a source for the noise.

 

I beg to differ....never giving my money or taking my truck back to Karl Malone lol. Mark Miller in SLC is where its at.

 

Sorry to hear about that. My experiences have all been good with them.

 

Thank you for the instructions. The hardest part was finding the hole for the Allen key...I often have similar problems.

 

So replaced my third belt I'm at 160k mi on my Tacoma and with new belt I have a slight chirp in the morning and within 30sec it goes right away . I'm thinking i need to replace a idler some where ? Anyone run into this issue ?

 

I replaced my serpentine belt at 89K mi with another Toyota belt. The old one is in really good shape with no cracks or uneven wear, so it's stored under the passenger seat in case some critter chews up the new one. I suggest you try to remove the old belt instead of just cutting it. You might have a good spare.

 

I did the same and printed the serp diagram from the first post to put in the glove box.

 

Nice post. I never knew about the 5mm Allen key trick to hood the tensioner in the slack position. Definitely going to try that next time I change the belt

 

Perfect writeup. I used a T handle allen I had. A+

2017 Tacoma w/28000 miles. Replaced it for age over mileage. Old belt looked good but stretched some. Replaced with Toyota Oem, new version.

Thanks

 

Used the Allen key truck when I replaced mine a few months ago, but I made a stupid mistake.

As a disclaimer I’ve worked on cars my entire life and I honestly just wasn’t paying attention when I did this.

When I pulled the tensioner I was using a breaker bar, and the handle hit the little brown sensor that goes into the plastic water neck/ thermostat housing. I cracked the sensor, and had to order a new thermostat housing because the sensor is molded to it.

Replacing the housing only took maybe 20 min but was out of stock everywhere so I had to wait for a few days to get it.

 

Water is a good lubricant for a rubber. While the engine is running lightly spray the belt with water and see if the squeaking goes away. If it does the squeaking is most likely being caused by the belt.

 

OP, thanks for the great write-up. Here is a video of a guy changing the belt on a 3rd Gen. He leaves the video running in real-time so you can see how long it took him to change the belt. No noise from my belt, but at 51K mile this will be my next project for peace of mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5fAcT0JAY

 

I had mine replaced with the recall

 

Step 6: Finish the beer you started because this took less time than you thought it would

For real! Took me not even twenty minutes. Smooth to smooth, groove to groove, piece of cake

 

I need to do mine.

Handy tip, keep your old belt for a back-up, just in case the new one breaks (however unlikely) while you’re in the middle of nowhere.