Does anyone have any info on changing the tensioner pulley? I just got the part and I need to fix it.

This is the part... how do i get pressure off of the belt/pulley?

 

see that n ut in the center of your new pulley. Well there is a bolt just like that one on your old pulley. Get a serpentine belt tensioner tool, or a 14mm offset wrench with a pipe attatched to the other end, and get on the bolt and push towards the rear of the car. This will relieve your tension and you can move the belt away from the pulley.

 

 

thanks guys

 

Thats what friends are for....... you are my friend right?


Please be my friend. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO 500 posts

 

Just curious....why did you change it? Where you hearing a rumbling sound coming from your engine? I'm trying to figure out if this is what's wrong with my car.

 

Alright, well I got it changed and it wasn't too bad. The bolt on the top was a B**CH to get off, but I finally got it.

Eisenhulk, the reason I swapped it out is because after a lot of mileage, the automatic tensioner pulley and/o its spring get worn out. Most often, the spring inside loses its tension and either the belts get loose or the pulley begins to wobble. This is where my problem came in. Between 1000 and 1200 rpms, I heard an extremely loud/annoying clinging noise that distinctly resembled rattling. After some research and isolating the area and cause of the sound, I deduced that the tensioner pulley was to blame. Acura quoted me $62 for the part and another $270 for the service. I said F that and tried on my own. I picked the part up and installed it today.

The install was straight forward. Since the pulley assembly is on the passenger side, I jack the car up, took the wheel off, and also removed the well liner. At this point, the assembly was just a little above directly in front of me. To remove tension off the belt, I used an 18mm wrench (I think) and a breaker bar for the extra leverage needed and applied the torque to the pulley bolt necessary to move the pulley upwards and off of the belt. I then removed the belt from the pulley with my other hand. The bottom bolt and the middle bolt were very easy to remove (10mm and 8mm respectively). I used a small socket setup with an extension. The extremely hard part was the top bolt. It was nearly impossible to get to because the bracket for the oil dipstick tube was strategically positioned RIGHT IN FRONT of it and the bolt for that was even harder to access. With some toying around, I was able to torque my ratcheting 10mm wrench into the spot with some help from my roommate coming in from the top of the engine bay. This is still a huge pain in the A and it will take at least a 1/2 hour to access this area, from all of the maneuvering and hand work. After I got the assembly off, the first thing i did was remove the bracket from the dipstick tube. I never bothered to reattach it for it rest with pressure against something else, yielding no benefit to being secured.

Reassemble in the exact opposite manner as disassembly.

I hope this short write up helps everyone looking to perform this work and saves us all some money. The short 2 hours it took is definitely worth it, especially if you'll save $275+.

Good luck and ask any questions!

 

Good job and a very nice informative write up. Hope this solved your "rattling" problem.

 

yep, runs perfect!

 

Thank you!!! It sounds like the exact same thing I'm experiencing. Did you hear it when you lightly accelerating and during light gear shifts?? This HAS to what my problem is. So you just replaced the pulley instead of the entire tensioner? How come? Also, where did you pick up the pulley and what did it cost you? I'm guessing around $35? Thank you for your help....and a talk about a great write up!

 

I'll be doing that once I get back to my dorm soon. I'll post pics in my conversion thread, but you can use those for you DIY also if you want.

 

Yea but it should only take you like 2 min with the motor sitting on your floor

 

hey... it's a work in progress. lol

 

Well, actually, I replaced the entire assembly which cost only $72 from Delray Acura. I was able to run down the street and pick it up, so I saved on shipping and whatnot. Delray Acura (acuraOEMparts.com) is the cheapest that I have found online.

I heard it under light throttle pressure and especially when the AC on was on and using the power window switches. I'd imagine that this was because the alternator
was being used.

 

Thanks again, bro. I really appreciate the feedback. Well, I'm pretty much convinced that replacing the entire assembly will solve my problem.

I'll keep you posted.

 

I also think that this will solve your problem. I was happy I did it myself too, and saved the money for something else, probably for a can of Pinnacle Souveran and some rotors...

 

I'll get to it in the next couple of weeks, along with changing out my cabin air filters. This shouldn't take my buddy and I an hour to do both. Kudos to you, bro!

 

i got the exact same prob...so u just bought the whole pulley itsself? can i get the part number plz?

 

http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/...catdisplay.jsp

 

can i get the part number? that link just takes me to the website to buy the parts....

 

I was able to search this website and find the exact problem - well a few possible scenarios for the infamous rattling engine noise that several TL owners have experienced. I can say for a fact that mine was attributable to the tensioner pulley. I took my 03 TL-S to the dealership for the transmission issues as a strange grinding noise had gotten worse and worse over time. The dealership called back and said that I "definitely had a transmission problem." However upon receiving the car it still made this noise, actually it seemed to have gotten worse. Long story short, I searched this site and gave the dealership a few options - heat shield, tensioner pulley, another faulty transmission, etc. and they said it indeed was the pulley. I question whether my care really had the transmission issue now, but who cares they fixed the car completely. Just thought I'd thank everyone for posting the problems and fixes for our car - I plan on keeping it now until it won't run any longer.

 

Well if you look up the part it will give you the part # there. Plus it will be pretty much cheaper there than any other dealer

 

CHANGE YOURS IF it starts wobbling or making noise.. if i don't forget ill post pics when it happened, mine completely came of on my way to work i used duck tape to make a ghetto belt around the alternator and engine so i could make it home......

 

Wax!! I thought it was a new beer.

 

I think this is what I am experiencing as well. I just recently installed an underdrive crank pulley and changed the belts but since then when the AC is on I hear chirping/sqeaking from what I guess is either the tensioner or the AC compressor? I may give this DIY a go as I imagine it couldn't hurt. I've got close to 109K on my 99 TL and it's about time for these little things to start creeping up.

 

Have the same clicking noise. Posted about it but didnt get any info. Mine is most noticable when AC compressor kicks in and If I put a stick and hold down the tensioner arm keeping it from bouncing up and down and the noise stops. So I am sure it needs to be changed and I will do it when I change my motor mounts.

Glad to hear others had similar symtoms and were able to solve it with that.

 

Sounds like a tensioner issue.

 

31170-P8F-A01 TENSIONER ASSY., AUTO 1 2002 TL 81.74 65.39


thats it right?

lol i had this prob for a while, and always thought what would happen if it comes off, i drove to toronto-mtl twice, and toronto-nyc twice..

 

The part number I have is 14510-P8A-A01 from the site below.

http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/...catdisplay.jsp

Their contact info is...

Acura Automotive Parts
Mon-Fri 8 AM-5 PM EST
acuraautoparts@aol.com

Now that I know what it is most likely I'll wait until I have a free weekend and the cash to get it. It's annoying as hell with the AC on.

-Jakester

 

i take it that u have a 99-01? i got a 02 type s....and i believe they are diff numbers.....can someone chime in?..

 

That's correct. I have a 99. My bad.

 

nm, when u do a manual search for both parts the name changes to adjuster timing belt, but yes there are diff part numbers for the years


99-01 TL=14510-P8A-A01
02-03 TL=31170-P8F-A01

 

I'm a little confused. I ordered 14510-P8A-A01 thinking it was the right thing but now I'm wondering if I should have ordered 14550-P8A-A01 IDLER, TIMING BELT instead. Which one of these have you guys had trouble with? I cannot even locate 14510-P8A-A01 ADJUSTER, TIMING BELT just looking under the hood. I will probably have to remove the passenger side tire and wheel-well to see which one is sqeaking like hell whenever the AC is on.

 

When I searched for mine for a 2000 it came up with 31170-P8F-A01 which is what they sent me. The other part you mentioned is just the wheel and the part number above is the spring mount and wheel. As for a different part number for 99-01, probably the old number although valid is changed. I have ordered certain numbers before and got different ones and the explanation was one number supercedes the older.

If you need a Belt tensioner removal tool try Schley products # 93170 I did my custom blower with a wrench and vowed never again it was difficult and after that is when my ticking sound started so I probably worked it too much as it was 7 years old. At any rate it makes it easier if you do a lot of your own work.

 

Thanks for the help. Here's the image I was using when noticing that perhaps I had the wrong thing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gibb.jake/AcuraTensioner

 

99

31170-P8F-A01 TENSIONER ASSY., AUTO

#2

 

thats for the timing belt. thats not what your looking for

 

Yes he is right you want the piece from the diagram he posted also you can see a pic of mine if you search for an earlier post of mine, It has a line the lines up on the arm between two other lines on the body of the belt tensioner and is on the passenger side down low. The place you have to put the wrench is right next to the side wall mid engine level so its a tight fit and ackward for trying to get leverage which is why this time I got a tool for it. 35 bucks but since I have to do my own maintenance and belt changes , I figured its worth it

 

Interesting story. I called www.acuraautomotiveparts.org asking to return the incorrect part and I was told there is no refund for 'special orders'. I then stated there was no indication on the website during the checkout process this was a special order item nor did I see any notice in the confirmation email that was sent. Apparently any order is considered 'special order' as it's not there locally in stock. This is not mentioned anywhere on the site that I could find. I called the store and they finally caved and said they would take the part back but I still had to pay the restocking fee of 15% and I had to pay to ship it back. So the net of it is I spent 20 bucks for nothing. Needless to say I've shopped somewhere else for the correct part. Hopefully this will help someone in the future when ordering from this reseller.

 

This helped me feel confident enough to give it a try. I would add that the little bolt in the middle of the assembly (yes I'm an idiot and didn't notice it for 30 minutes) needs to come off using an 11mm small socket. My big surpise was after reinstalling the new assembly and getting everything back together then cranking it back up I heard a terrible whining noise from the steering fluid pump. In fear I drove to the dealership as at the time I couldn't see anything wrong. Once I arrived and popped the hood, there it was. Steering fluid was oozing out of the reservoir. They knew exactly what it was and told me how it happened. Apparently you need to be very careful when applying any pressure to the return hose from the power steering reservoir. There is a .96 cent o-ring in there that can be damaged easily at the steering pump assembly. Once that was replaced and a little more fluid added my engine now sounds as it should. No more squeaking esp. when the AC is on. Thanks again for the quick DIY. Hope this helps someone else with this project.

-jakester