Serpentine belt tensioner replacement?

[Jimmy9190]

I put a new serpentine belt tensioner on my truck at 42,000 miles, that was back in January of 2006. Truck now has 151,400 miles on it. About a month ago I had a squealing serpentine belt, I replaced the belt and the squeal was gone. The belt I had on it before was only about 2 years old and had maybe 15,000 miles on it. The tensioner now has over 110,000 miles on it, it is a Gates brand, I got it at Napa.

When do you guys here replace the tensioner? Only when it squeals or makes noise, or do you have an interval to follow? I read online that you should replace the tensioner and belt together, but those articles were written by people who sell tensioners and belts for a living.

I think my tensioner must have some problem for my belt to wear out prematurely like that. My new belt is not squealing (yet). Do tensioners have a mileage-related life expectancy or do you replace them strictly for peace of mind? I wonder if I should just replace my tensioner anyway as maintenance if for no other reason.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

[SLCraig]

Depends on the tensioner. The spring loaded type I replace when they fail, because there are usually no warning signs.

The manual type never need to be replaced, my fathers' Nissan is like that, you tighten it down manually with a ratchet. Although the pulley periodically could be replaced if the bearing starts to make noise.

Belts usually last a very long time too. Belts it's hard to not recommend OEM. They always work and last forever.

 

[Boomer]

Sometimes a belt just squeals. Put a couple of dabs of SILICONE (not petroleum) grease on the RIBBED, not flat) side of the belt. This will really quiet squealing belts for a long perid of time with

 

[Nate_Anderson]

I can't say I have a set time or mileage to replace a tensioner, but I'd say it's worth considering in your case. I'll give you two anecdotal stories they may help you make your choice;

First when I bought my boat it had a chirping serpentine belt, I did some research and found that some of the tensioners would get weak quickly for those engines (Volvo Penta marinized 3.0 GM four cylinder). I replaced the tensioner and not the belt, after a few outings the belt stopped chirping and it's still quiet to this day approximately 4-5 years later still running the original ('04) belt.

Second, we were having a fantastic amount of trouble with keeping serpentine belts on one of our trucks at work ('94 Ford F-450, 7.3 IDI Navistar), the belt would pop off a pulley, get wrapped around the crank pulley and usually smack the heck out of everything under the hood in the process (including the battery cables which are pricey to replace on a dual battery set-up). The belts would only last 6 months to a year. We had a different shop work on it and they replaced the belt and tensioner and we've had no more problems in the last couple years.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks. That was why I had to replace the original tensioner to begin with - it kept slinging the belt off the pulleys. I bought and returned 2 tensioners from Auto Zone, they had the same problem, the belt would sling off when I started my truck. Then I saw the Gates belt on Napa's web site and I realized the differences in construction, and also saw the Gates tensioner was a perfect match to my OEM tensioner, where the AZ part was built completely different. The Napa belt also cost about $80.00, but it worked great at least until now.

I believe I will just go ahead and replace the tensioner, if for no other reason than my own peace of mind. I still think the tensioner is why my other belt wore out or stretched too soon. Napa's price on the tensioner is still $78.00, Carquest is higher than that, but I can get the Gates tensioner from Rock Auto for $58.00 shipped.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Jimmy9190]

The Gates tensioner is the only one that fits my truck and works correctly with the correct pulley alignment. A new tensioner from the local Dodge dealer is $143.00. That price is out of my budget. My original OEM tensioner only lasted 42,000 miles. The Gates tensioner from Napa went over 110,000 miles with no trouble at all until now.

Gates has been good quality for me, belts, hoses and tensioner too. I just completed my order with Rock Auto, $58.50 shipped for a new Gates tensioner, it should be here probably on Friday. If Rock sends me anything other than what I ordered, I will send it back and get a refund from Pay Pal. I guess we can all get bad parts at one time or another or bad service from one parts supplier or another. So far I have had good luck with both Gates and Rock Auto. Rock has great prices, every now and then I have found Rock is even cheaper than AAP with their discount codes.

 

[stephen9666]

I'm glad you've had a good experience with your Gates tensioner, but their hard parts seem hit or miss to me.

It seems some of them are just rebranded made-in-China white box parts. I had a bad experience with a tensioner pulley that was made in China and failed within a month.

I still like their belts/hoses, but I probably won't buy any more of their water pumps, tensioners etc.

 

[onus]

Ford has 2 tensioner designs for the 7.3 idi serpentine system. The old design stinks. You can buy both on the aftermarket. Be sure to get the new design.

 

[doitmyself]

My Caravan original tensioner was doing this:


I replaced both the tensioner and belt with Gates

, but about 6 months later the belt started squealing again whenever I turned on the air conditioner

.

It's o.k. now sans air conditioner use, but I will have to investigate come spring.

Best of luck. Lots of videos on You tube about diagnosing belt problems.