Idler Pulleys / Tensioner Pulley / Serpentine Belt

Glad someone revived this thread. The canaries have been getting pretty upset under my hood on cold morning starts. Looks like I've got another project in the next few weeks.

 

I also just replaced all 3 pulleys, the tensioner, H2O pump, thermostat & housing, and serp belt...'06 Access 4x4 4.0L 6-speed, 130,000 miles...the motor developed an oil leak around the timing cover. I did not want to drop the oil pan and timing cover in the driveway myself, so I had the stealer replace all the gaskets. They also found another issue and replaced the head gaskets. It made sense to replace the water pump, thermo, pulleys, tensioner, and belt while everything was apart so I gave them the Gates parts I had already purchased and they did the entire repair. I am going to get 300K out of this Taco if it kills me!!!

 

I replaced the pulleys and not the belt tensioner arm at about 100,000 miles. Now at 150,000 I replaced the belt a second time and the tensioner arm has worn enough that the new belt would ride in towards the engine resulting in the new belt losing the edge of the belt on the side of the engine. That little strip of belt that came off of the belt got sucked into the new main seal that I had just replaced 2 weeks prior. The new seal was ruined. My suggestion is to replace that tensioner arm at about 100,000 miles. I wrote a post here on the forums.

 

^ I think that's a case by case basis. I'm on my 3rd belt with 162k miles (10 1/2 years) and the pulleys are still stock with no issues whatsoever (no squeaking and no belt issues). Still on original water pump too.

 

How much did it coast the whole repair?

I do have little leak around timing cover.. Plus I have to take it in hour to a dealer to replace transmission seal and shaft.. That would be around 800$.. I'm honestly disappointed in myTacoma.. It's 2007 with 115k miles and parts falling a part.. Plus I need to replace engine belt not sure about the pulleys and all other crap..

 

Not sure what other problems you have had and I can understand about the trans seal but honestly replacing your engine belt at 115K is not bad plus it's just good insurance to do it anyways. Back in the day cars had 2 or 3 belts and the belts would never make it to 100K

 

OMGWTFBBQIDGAFLOL!!!

Its the end of the world again. The temp finally dropped below 40 and since I drive at night, I instantly encountered the dreaded squeak orchestra again. I have put 4 belts on this truck and none stay silent below 40f after they've had a summer run. I've replaced the upper pulley twice, tensioner twice and belt four times. I'm getting a squeak/squeal that matches with revolutions to the belt. I can't tell if its because there is a spot on the belt that perhaps "hops" when cold and stiff. It takes 10 miles for it to seriously quiet down, but now my DD is 7 miles.

I'm now going to replace the lower pulley with Dayco 89503. I only realized that the daycoproducts website has exact specs and pics of their parts so you can confirm. You can find the tensioner pulley from there without having to pay for the spring arm. I think I'm going to get a OEM belt too (it was much nicer quality than the replicas). I've never had a vehicle with so much squeeeeeek.

 

So yourself a favor and buy a mechanics stethoscope kit, Lisle makes a good one, made in USA for less than $20 on Amazon.
It comes with two attachments one for detecting air noise and another for vibration it works excellent. Good luck!

 

I THOUGHT that I was going to need to replace a pulley and/or tensioner. I saw somebody (different, but related thread) mention that just changing the belt solved their noise, so decided to give that a shot first.

No noise! It has been a week, and even on cold & wet mornings there is no noise from the belt. I used the 3yr. warranty belt from Autozone.

It was a sunny day, so let the belt sit in the sun for awhile to make it a bit more pliable. Used a 5mm hex wrench as "pin" to hold the tensioner in the "loose" position while I snaked the belt on.

I checked all the pulleys while the belt was off, and they all felt fine. The old belt was worn and stretched, obviously longer than the new belt - I think it was just now too long for the tensioner to give it enough preload, and that was the cause of the squeal.

119,000 miles on the truck, and I believe the belt was original. I suspect the spark plugs are also original, so that will be the next project...

 

Sub'd. I'm at 181k. Just changed the original belt at around 135k. Got a bit of noise in the morning, especially when it's cool so going to tackle this shortly. Valuable thread!

 

Clean the area behind the power steering pump, on the timing cover. Use Permatex Mr. Gasket 1 minute gasket maker, and rub it into the mating surfaces with your finger. Leak no more.

File off just a few thousandths from the power steering pump's top bolt hole, where it presses between the timing cover and head. So that it snuggly slides in and doesn't force the timing cover away from the head. Problem fixed. Unless you really do want to pull the timing cover, to reseal. Still perform the filing to the power steering unit.

Also, I am using the Gates Racing serpentine belt if anyone is interested. However some will not, since it has one less rib than factory. Two of us have been using them for nearly two years straight. If anyone is interested.

 

I may try this. Not interested in tearing down my rig to fix such a slow leak but this seems doable. Thanks.

 

I have a timing cover getting prepped to re-install on another engine of mine. I can take a picture of the area that is the reason for the leak. Two part problem.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gates-racing-oem-serpentine-belt-replacement-for-1gr.355220/

For those who may be interested.

 

sub'd

 

Sorry for the delay in getting these pictures. I'll post them elsewhere as well. Not sure why I never took pictures prior to now, but at least now I have them and can share them.

Here are the two machined locations, on the mating surface of the timing cover, in the location of where the power steering pump resides. As well as where the tsb fix is for.





Here you can clearly see how the mating surface is not even. The first picture is of the gap closest to the top of the timing cover. The second and third pictures are the next slot a little lower.

 

Reviving this thread a little. I have a chirp chirp chirp coming from the front end at times. Sounds like a bearing to me. It's kinda random. At times its present and times its completely silent temperatures donts seem to have any effect. Pulley? Belt? It's a high pitch chirp.

 

Bumping the thread. I ordered the gates kit off of Rockauto and i chose to order the kit that included the entire tensioner assembly.

after seeing how fast a job this is without replacing the entire tensioner assembly, i opted to take the pulley off the new tensioner assembly and put it on the old one. but it stuck out too far and i was uncomfortable with it.

so i put the original pulley back on. the original pulley from the tensioner assembly was smooth as silk even after 177k miles. if anybody has a solution for this pulley swap that'd be great. i don't see how it could work. come to think of it though i didn't try turning it around backwards. that may have dealt with the offset.

also fyi, the bushings that come with this kit, i chose to put the busing on the front side of the pulley. that way, they offset wasn't changed on teh pulley. i don't think i saw that anywhere in teh thread so far. but my first try was putting the bushing on the backside fo the pully up against the mounting post but it caused the pulley to stick out an 1/8th of an inch and i didn't like how close the belt was to the back of the pulley.

as far as results, all i can say is WOWOWOOWOWOW.

my truck sounds as quiet as a new truck now. well worth the very small amount of effort. i put my car up on ramps and dropped the skid plate (repainted it with black rustoleum while it was off) and this is a really fast and inexpensive job in your driveway. my truck sounded like a bunch or rattle cans and there was also a whine that i thought was the power steering pump but nope! it was the pulleys.

 

Replaced my belt and the 3 idler pulleys today, this guide helped. A tip: if you are doing this without a torque wrench, make sure NOT to over tighten the center pulley bolts. You'll prevent the pulley from being able to rotate. If a pulley is seized, you'll hear the belt squeaking across it and will smell burning rubber. Ask me how I know.

I do have a question though, when I went to reinstall the tensioner pulley with #36174, the bolt seemed too short? Anyone else experience something similar? The bolt didn't seem to have enough threads showing to thread into the mount. For now, I've just reused the old tensioner pulley. I will take a look at it again tomorrow.

 

@VikingTrad3r - The bearing in the tensioner pulley is replaceable - the size is 17X40X17.5 (ID X OD X Width); I installed a Nachi 5203-2NS.

@BlackBeerd - The 36174 pulley is meant to replace the double-wide pulley next to the AC, No. 1 Idler is what Toyota calls it. The bearing is wider than the OEM pulley; that's why the bolt is not long enough. You either need to buy a longer bolt, which is very difficult to find a reverse-threaded replacement; use pulley from a new tensioner assembly; or re-use the OEM pulley and replace the bearing, as mentioned above.

Left is old; right is the new bearing.