Serpentine Belt and Idler Pully Troubleshoot and Replace


High pitch noise from the front car, especially when cold start.

  1. Troubleshooting:
    • Use stethoscope to touch each pully to find the loudest part.
    • remove the belt, move pully side to side to see if there’s any play. Water pump and idler pully shouldn’t have any significant play to it.
  2. Caution: perform the check and replacement when the engine is cold. The water pump could be very hot after the car been running for a while.
  3. Tools:
  4. Steps
    • Remove shaker hood by removing the 4 bolts near corners.
    • loosen the clamp of air intake tube near the engine air filter and engine.
    • Remove electrical connector of the intake temp.
    • Remove the intake tube (mine comes with resonator)
    • Put the serpentine bent tool to the tensioner. rotate counterclockwise to loosen the tension on the belt.
    • Remove the belt.
    • Visually check the belt to see if there is any crack by bending it backwards.
    • Remove the bolt on the Idler pully. Remove the Idler pully.
    • Put on the new Idler pully, put on bolt, torque to 21lb-ft.
    • put on the belt, follow the diagram below. Make the threads align with the pully.
    • Put back the intake tube, and connect the intake sensor temp connector.
    • Run the car. check the belt to see if there’s any misalignment, check each pully to see if there’s movement from left to right.
    • put back the shaker hood.