Serpantine Belt

Greetings,

My daughters 2000 SL1 SOHC
Serpantine belt is squeeling like a
stuck pig and it appears to need replacement.
At least a visual inpsection indicates it is old.
I hope that is why it is squeeling. The noise
does lessen once the engine warms up so that
appears to indicate expansion and adhesion
from heat is a factor. When belts get old and
hard they tend to slip when they are cold.

I am faced with a time situation. She lives in
Austin and will be bringing the car to me this
SUN AM and I will only have about 2-3 hours
to do the job although previous experience
with belts should tell me it will take about
1/2 hour tops...BUT if anyone here has done this
job and can give me few details on the r&r
it would be greatly appreciated. I would not ask
if there was not going to be time restraint.

She has to have the car ready by noon or
she will KILL ME WHERE I STAND!!!!

Thanks for your help.

Ken

[email protected]

After net searches I am finding out the belt tensioner may be bad as well. Anyone know how to test the tensioner when I replace the belt?

to take the belt off you need to jack up the car to remove the wheel and splash shield. to get the push pins out, use a flathead screw driver or carefully use a pair of wire cutters to pull them out(don't break em!). you will also need a 14mm wrench.


be sure the belt and/or tensioner is the problem first. take off the belt and run the engine for no more then a minute(no water pump, no coolent flow) and see if the sound goes away. the only way to check the tensioner is with a belt tension tester. (45-60 pounds i think) you may just want to replace it anyway. but the thing does cost a pretty penny(i wanna say 60 or 90 dollars)and i don't know how common it is for them to fail after four years. while you are in there, make sure the idler pulley spins freely.

Appreciate the procedure. Sounds good. I do not have a
belt tension tester of course, and your correct about
replacing it anyway since my research shows this is fairly
common on the Saturn. Only thing is they want 75 bucks
at O-Rielly's!!! I know I risk glazing a new belt with
a malfunctioning tensioner but we are short on $$$$
so I am going to risk it. You know I bet a little common
sense might apply on the tension test. I might ask
O-Rielly's to let me look at a new one and then compare
it to the one on the car. I am guessing of course.
Thanks again for the tip!!!

Ken




to take the belt off you need to jack up the car to remove the wheel and splash shield. to get the push pins out, use a flathead screw driver or carefully use a pair of wire cutters to pull them out(don't break em!). you will also need a 14mm wrench.


be sure the belt and/or tensioner is the problem first. take off the belt and run the engine for no more then a minute(no water pump, no coolent flow) and see if the sound goes away. the only way to check the tensioner is with a belt tension tester. (45-60 pounds i think) you may just want to replace it anyway. but the thing does cost a pretty penny(i wanna say 60 or 90 dollars)and i don't know how common it is for them to fail after four years. while you are in there, make sure the idler pulley spins freely.