Hey guys. Im putting a timing belt in my car as we speak, Im down to the tensioner and I donno about this thing. I have no book and the autozone.com walk thru wont bring the pictures up on how to loosen it. If anyone has done it or has a book and could look for me I'd REALLY appreciate it. I'll even give you my phone number if you can call and walk me thru it if that would be easier.

 

Just loosen the bolt right in the center of it, and pull it as far away from the belt as possible and re-tighten it so it holds.

 

Thanks man. I owe you one. That spring on it kinda scared me away from the bolt but thats what I'll do.

 

you actually may want to think about getting a new tensioner.... how many miles do you have on the one on the car now?

 

130k miles.
and the belt that was on it was factory one lol

 

yeah may want to think about replacing the tensioner. I just did my timing belt and tensioner at 45K... water pump started leaking, so that was replaced under warranty.

 

I just called around and all my parts stores would have to order it and I need my car back together tonight so Im just gonna let it slide. Anyone know the torque on the tensioner?

 

I just subscribed to alldatadiy.com. I think it was like $25 for a year access. Wish I had done it sooner. tells me everything I would have needed to know.

and I just lost a bolt for the motor mount damnit.

 

yeah, ALLDATA is nice... everything is from the Factory Service manual... but it's really unorganized compared to it. I just like ALLDATA for the fact it tells me the labor hours (warranty/regular) before I take the car in the dealership.

 

Is the timing belt change a difficult task? I'm only at 38k on my 2004 but that maintenance is kinda my breaking point of whether to keep my car or just get another car.

Also, when you go to change the belt do you just remove the mount close to the timing belt and jack the engine up from the oil pan?

 

it's actually not too bad. Dealer should charge not more then $300 for labor. But at 60K when you need the service... SOP is water pump, tensioner, and belt.

 

Actually, when I worked at Mitsu, we replaced the tensioner pulley at the SECOND timing belt replacement, and just inspected it the first time around. I never saw one go bad at 60k miles, or even 120k miles. As for the water pump, they dont usually fail below 100k miles but it's easy to do once the belt is off so it is part of the SOP. Now that I work on Toyotas we almost never see those timing idlers or tension pullies go bad. It's just not a part that commonly fails. Most dealerships don't even bother to stock them for this reason.

 

I am at 107k and bought the car at 82k and the shops that have looked at it said they dont think my belt was changed.
So I would need to replace the belt, tensioner, and water pump?