Successful belt replacement by a diagram-challenged knob.

It was a bEEautiful day today in the Mid-Atlantic! I feel Spring is on the way. I took the opportunity to be out in the sunshine and perform a tune-up on my newly-acquired 08 Taco. Replaced serpentine belt, plugs, filters. Being a newby to this vehicle, this was my first time doing this maintenance on a Tacoma. The good people on TW had some helpful posts. I love this forum. A couple of things I learned.

1. Passenger side plugs are so much easier to replace than the driver's side, but neither side caused me too much drama. On the passenger side, just unbolt the air cleaner housing from the frame and you're on your way. On the driver's side, I pulled the one vacuum hose that was blocking the rear bank, took the top bolt off of the bracket blocking the middle bank, loosened the lower bolt on the bracket and just knocked the top out of the way.

2. Cabin filters are an easily forgotten about item...don't. They get really nasty.

3. Serpentine belt: I'm really, really bad at reading diagrams. I don't know what my problem is, but just be glad I'm not an engineer responsible for any bridges near your home. I followed advice that said it was easier to go in from the bottom. I dropped the skid plate, cranked the tensioner over and pulled off the old belt. Piece of cake. Trusty diagram (from TW) in hand, I proceeded to spend the next hour baffled and confused and trying every conceivable "start" point for wrapping the belt around all the pulleys, idlers, and tensioner. I always ended up with a twisted mess and could not, for whatever reason, figure out how to back wrap the stupid belt around the tensioner. Finally, I started with the tensioner, making a loop with the ribs facing out, feeding the belt across the top of crank pulley and things started falling into place. I left the power steering pulley last and just had a helper pop the belt onto the pulley while I cranked the tensioner over. It's probably not the normal way to replace that belt, but it worked for me. And the end result is that the annoying squeak is gone and that engine is purring as quiet as a Tacoma V6 can purr (there are quieter engines out there).

All in all, a successful day for a half-wit DIY.