Change 2002 Camry 4 cyl. serpentine belt

[tdixonrob]

How do you change a 2002 Camry serpentine belt? What needs to be loosened?

[mablutman]

first thing is to draw a diagram of the pulleys and how the belt is routed. for some reason toyota decided that they didnt need to put a sticker with this info under the hood...

next, right behind the alternator, their is an aluminum type plate that is conected to the tensioner pulley. it has what looks like a nut welded to a plate, i think it is 14mm. put a socket wrench on that and use some power and push it down (it takes quite a bit so if your operating solo use a pipe on the end of the wrench for leverage while you take the belt off with the other hand. ) this will loosen the belt enough to get it off the alternator pulley. switch out the belt, and reverse the process to get it back on.

you can see the tensioner if you look straight now the side of the engine, it looks like a little shock absorber, and is attached to both the pulley and that plate.

[tdixonrob]

Originally Posted by mablutman

first thing is to draw a diagram of the pulleys and how the belt is routed. for some reason toyota decided that they didnt need to put a sticker with this info under the hood...

next, right behind the alternator, their is an aluminum type plate that is conected to the tensioner pulley. it has what looks like a nut welded to a plate, i think it is 14mm. put a socket wrench on that and use some power and push it down (it takes quite a bit so if your operating solo use a pipe on the end of the wrench for leverage while you take the belt off with the other hand. ) this will loosen the belt enough to get it off the alternator pulley. switch out the belt, and reverse the process to get it back on.

you can see the tensioner if you look straight now the side of the engine, it looks like a little shock absorber, and is attached to both the pulley and that plate.

Thanks! It is a 19mm nut. Works like a charm!!

[lws6772]

Originally Posted by tdixonrob

How do you change a 2002 Camry serpentine belt? What needs to be loosened?

According to the Toyota.com website, a 2002 4 cylinder Camry does'nt have a belt, it has a chain. What's the deal, just asking since I want to buy a Camry, but one with a chain. Thanks for any info.

[Brian R.]

The original poster was referring to the accessory belt, not the timing belt/chain.

[Streetglower]

Now when you say push down on the nut, is it just like removing tension on a vehicle with a regular belt tension? Are you suposed to put the wrench on there and turn the wrench untill it loosens. Or actually push down toward the bottom of the car on the nut.?

[Brian R.]

Yes, it is only to remove the tension on the belt. You have to do this to both remove the old belt and install the new one.

[tdixonrob]

Originally Posted by Streetglower

Now when you say push down on the nut, is it just like removing tension on a vehicle with a regular belt tension? Are you suposed to put the wrench on there and turn the wrench untill it loosens. Or actually push down toward the bottom of the car on the nut.?

It is a nut that does not turn. It is just to allow you to bottom out the belt tensioner so you can remove the belt. You pull down on it and hold it down until you can remove the belt. Definitely do a drawing of where the belt goes before removing!

[provfiredive]

I have a picture of the layout of the belt but can't figure out how to post it

[Brian R.]

There is a link to a downloadable 2002 Camry FSM in the sticky post at the top of this forum. I'm sure you can find a drawing of the belt layout if you need one.

Instructions for posting images are in the FAQ thread, also at the top of this forum.

BTW, don't add comments to 1 1/2 year old discussions. Pay attention to the date on the previous post.