I don't think many dealers recommend changing the tensioner pulley during the first timing belt change. I think they would probably suggest it at the second change interval. I have 167k on my original tensioner pulley, but maybe I am lucky. I have read about another guy with a '95 SR that had the tensioner pulley fail, but he stopped the engine before the belt broke. He heard some noise and when it was dissassembled, the bearing in the pulley had failed.

I could imagine, that if the bearing in the pulley siezed, it would cause the belt to melt and break. I am guessing that is what happened to you.

I am getting worried about my timing belt.....

 

Winshawn: How many miles on your current belt? Like I said originally, if you never had a water pump failure, I doubt the bearing would be bad since they are sealed from the factory. I would think they would give warning (squeal or something before it goes.....

 

I changed my timing belt and water pump at 90k, in April of 2000. So I have 77k miles on it, but it is over 6 years old. This time I will change the tensioner pulley and the tensioner and the water pump. That will probably get me another 100k miles.

What does the water pump have to do with the tensioner pulley? Are you thinking the water would leak into the tensioner pulley bearing?

 

i just bought a 95 sr from a couple that were told that the eng was shot turns out to be a bad timing belt tensioner i changed the tensioner -idler - tensioner pulley- timing belt- and water pump fired right up they had let it sit for 2 years trying to save up to get the motor replaced she said that she pulled into her driveway and the truck made a click sound and started to run bad so she shut it off she said that the shop did a compression test and said that the engine had no compression and needed a new motor

 

Im thinking that if the h2o pump failed, water could theoretically get on the bearing and dry it out..... That is the only source of moisture, unless you were to submerge the motor.

 

Reading his message I'd say he's only saying they don't show wear at 60k. At higher miles, it's likely a coin toss if you'll see wear or not.

Regardless, I agree that it's cheap insurance to replace them and not doing so would be pretty fool hardy especially w/ an interference engine.

 

I would agree with you offroader. Even so, after reading the thread starter, Im kicking myself for not replacing at 60k!! I replaced everything else (h20 pump etc, I should have done the pulley. Oh well.

BTW, for those doing the DIY on this. MAKE SURE YOU LINE UP THE HASH MARKS before removing the belt!!! Ive done about 6 timing belt changes in my life and this was the 1st time one of the OHC pulleys rotated off of TDC! Scared the hell out of me, luckily I was not rushed or I would have been screwed if everything was not lined up. The OHC pulleys are precariously balancing at TDC - when fitting the belt, you will inadvertantly move the teeth on the cog. A strap wrench works well to move the pulley - they are under alot of spring force. Also, when removing the crankshaft pulley, you will need to buy the special Mitsu spanner wrench or as in my case a pair of vice grips with the chain that allows you to grip around the flange of the pulley. It was close to 150-200ft-lbs to break that crankshaft bolt loose!

 

Tj,

How did you torque the tensioner pulley? Did you buy the special tool?

 

No I did not buy the tool. If I remember correctly, the bearing axis if rotation is offset from the fastening bolt. This allows the pulley to move fore and aft during tightening. The spring plunger gives the correct tension on the belt. My memory is a little foggy, but I dont think the tool was required since the natural rotation of tightening the fastner bolt moves the pulley closed to the belt. The plunger takes care of the 'fine tuning' of belt tension.

Just as an aside - when I took everything apart, the belt was loose near the tension pulley!!! The drive side was taught (thank God). The tension pulley bolt was either too loose or not torqued correctly. Im lucky the belt did not jump Im out of warranty and the engine only has 60k miles. I tried to test the spring force on the plunger and its a real stiff spring. I did not test it since I was concerned I was going to damage it. Anyway, the belt is very taugh t when the plunger force is on the belt for both the drive and non-drive(belt tensioner) sides.

i will remove the fan and serpentine belt to access the timing belt access hole soon just to check my work. You can put your fingers in there and check belt tension very easily with minimal disassembly.....

 

You're not the only one! My daily driver is a 95 Golf w/ a 2.0L engine.

Last year, I had to replace it's water pump and cash was pretty tight when this happened so I only replaced the timing belt in addition but the tensioner pully was out of stock and would take an extra day to receive so I didn't replace it or any other bearings, seals, etc.

In the past 6 months I've noticed a significant oil leak (+1 qt every 1k miles) which turns out to be leaking past the valve cover gasket and front cam & crank seals and rear output shaft seals.

Last week, while making a turn at a light, the Timing Belt broke!! The break happened because the tensioner pully bearing siezed!![sm=bangbang.gif]
The mechanic said it was due to excessive oil in front but I don't buy that since frankly I can't make sense of something siezing from too much oil.

Anyhow, I'm fortunate that the 2.0 is a non-interference engines under 2-3k rpm after which they become interference engines[:-] & at the time I was under that so I experienced no additional valvetrain damage.

So now, it was a lesson learned!! I had the mechanic replace the tensioner pulley/bearing, Idler pulley bearings, front cam & crank seals, & valve cover gasket! He inspected the water pump and said it would be fine for a long time yet.

No more smoke, & hopefully no more broken timing belts or siezed pully/tensioner bearings!!