Onuma
Member
- Joined
- March 31, 2015
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Northern VA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '04 Explorer XLT
(( In case anyone asks, this truck has seen 165k+ miles, primarily around the New Jersey coastline where it is really wet & salty. Hence he surface corrosion on nearly everything and the quarter panel ))
Originally I replaced this idle pulley yesterday, which had been stuck long enough to develop a coating of rust around the exposed metal (bad winter, lots of salt & chems on the roadways). The belt is cracked up too, and due for replacement:
No problem, new idle pulley installed with barely a hitch. The belt was newly and properly installed (checked the diagram many times, as well as to make sure it was feeding correctly and lined up with all grooves in all pulleys).
Not a day goes by afterward, and the belt starts squealing when I'm at class. I check it out and notice that there is material rubbing off the engine-side of the belt. Further inspection reveals that the belt has actually moved over 1 full groove on all of the grooved pulleys, and an equal distance (roughly 1/8") on the small ones, causing it to rub against the beveled wheels. Even worse, as it rode over the tensioner, it was wearing against the (engine block?) and burning up.
Without much of an option, I figured out who had the parts I needed and drove it a couple of miles to the local Advance Auto. By this point, the belt had literally slipped past the edge of the tensioner, squeezed itself between that pulley and the block, and loosened itself from the other pulleys. I had to cut it loose to remove it
Fortunately, I happened to be in an auto parts store lot...unfortunately, the engine was so hot that I couldn't even work on it at the time, AND rain was inbound just a few minutes later.
So I sucked up my pride and called AAA Better to do this from home than out there.
My suspicion is that the belt tensioner assembly is bad. I have a replacement for it and a new belt to try, as well as the other 2 idle pulleys to install (might as well make them all new, right?). I'm hoping this does the trick, and it's not the harmonic balancer which is causing this problem all of a sudden.
I'm sure I can fix it, but I don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes. I need to get some pictures of where the belt was burning onto the other pulleys, but daylight was fading as I was towed home. This is first priority when I wake up in the morning.
Anyone else have a similar experience?
Originally I replaced this idle pulley yesterday, which had been stuck long enough to develop a coating of rust around the exposed metal (bad winter, lots of salt & chems on the roadways). The belt is cracked up too, and due for replacement:
No problem, new idle pulley installed with barely a hitch. The belt was newly and properly installed (checked the diagram many times, as well as to make sure it was feeding correctly and lined up with all grooves in all pulleys).
Not a day goes by afterward, and the belt starts squealing when I'm at class. I check it out and notice that there is material rubbing off the engine-side of the belt. Further inspection reveals that the belt has actually moved over 1 full groove on all of the grooved pulleys, and an equal distance (roughly 1/8") on the small ones, causing it to rub against the beveled wheels. Even worse, as it rode over the tensioner, it was wearing against the (engine block?) and burning up.
Without much of an option, I figured out who had the parts I needed and drove it a couple of miles to the local Advance Auto. By this point, the belt had literally slipped past the edge of the tensioner, squeezed itself between that pulley and the block, and loosened itself from the other pulleys. I had to cut it loose to remove it
Fortunately, I happened to be in an auto parts store lot...unfortunately, the engine was so hot that I couldn't even work on it at the time, AND rain was inbound just a few minutes later.
So I sucked up my pride and called AAA Better to do this from home than out there.
My suspicion is that the belt tensioner assembly is bad. I have a replacement for it and a new belt to try, as well as the other 2 idle pulleys to install (might as well make them all new, right?). I'm hoping this does the trick, and it's not the harmonic balancer which is causing this problem all of a sudden.
I'm sure I can fix it, but I don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes. I need to get some pictures of where the belt was burning onto the other pulleys, but daylight was fading as I was towed home. This is first priority when I wake up in the morning.
Anyone else have a similar experience?