Hey guys, I just joined Acurazine a few days ago with the intent of learning how my 2001 TL-P operates and how I can save some $$$ by DIY'ing anything/everything. Anyways, I got my car checked at the shop and they reported cracks in my serpentine belt and dark trans fluid. Total, it'd cost me roughly $300. I don't have $300 to spend, so I looked up both and decided that doing a trans fluid drain & fill wouldn't be too hard (I'm fairly new with working on cars), so I got that covered.

So that leaves my serpentine belt. It's visually obvious it needs replacing and I searched these forums for any posts, but didn't find anything concrete. Youtube has 1 video, but it's pretty poorly shot. Obviously as a beginner I don't want to mess things up - but dammit, I want to get my hands dirty. Can anyone detail the process of removing & replacing a serpentine belt, or point me in a right direction? If all else fails, I'll have the shop do it, but peer pressure from Skirmich has convinced me that I should do it myself.

Also: my windshield wiper hoses and nozzles are broken, so I ordered a new setup on amazon so I'll be replacing that too: anything I should lookout for?

Thank you in advance for all the help!

 

Replacing the Belt is Easy..
You need:


1 Ratch or Wrench.. A Stillen can do too..
1 Socket for the Tensioner I believe its a 12mm
1 New Belt
1 Mighty Hand


Now.. Visually Localize your tensioner. It must be just beside the alternator a simple pulley with a large "arm"..


1.- Grab your ratch and socket or wrench and secure it to the pulley bolt.


2.- Now with your mighty hand make turn the bolt to counter clock wise direction (It will not move, In its place it will rise the pulley away from the belt).


3.- With the other hand remove the belt from the Alternator pulley (Easiest and closest to your other hand). BE EXTEMELY CAREFUL of not letting go of the tensioner pulley or you might hurt your fingers


Reverse Procedure to re-install.


Hope that helps

 

How many miles your car?

For three hundred dollars you can:
~get an oil change
~do a 3x3 tranny flush with filter
~put a new air filter in
~replace the cabin filter
~replace all your spark plugs
~put a serpentine belt in
~replace all the radiator fluid
~change out all the brake fluid
~buy 2 cans of brake cleaner and a bottle of throttle body cleaner
~buy 2 cans of seafoam

And still have money left over to buy a pepsi.

 

If nobody mentioned it, register your car with MyAcura.com. You can possibly get more information on your transmission and be able to download a manual for free.

With 187,000 miles you have a lot of miles left on your car. Do the mechanicals and then move out of DIYville into mod city.

 

Sitting at 215,500, I bought it 2 years ago at 187k. And haha, I like your list, but I've already (in the past month) done the oil change, air filter, cabin air filter, and checked all my fluid levels (all good). My ATF does need changing though, but instead of a 3x3 I think I'll just do a drain & fill everytime I change my oil. I haven't taken a good look at the spark plugs in awhile, and I definitely want to try seafoam.
But my biggest repairs now are:
ATF drain and fill
Serpentine belt replacement.
Just have to find time to do both between work and school.

Other than that, my car has run like a baby all 25k miles I've driven it. Knock on wood, but it's been a great, low-maintenance car.

 

Doing a 3x3 flush over the period of three oil changes is also a good way to change out the fluid. When done put the spin on filter on. Make sure you understand that more three quarts of fluid come out at a time.

Buy enough Honda DW-1 for that extra fluid that comes out.

 

Replacing Serp belt is not that hard. You need two wrenches total. One offset 15Deg 14mm wrench, one end closed, one end open - this is important. The open end is for leveraging. You need another any wrench with a closed end to leverage the spring tension on the open end of the 14mm wrench. Undo one screw on the PS reservoir, line up the 14mm wrench in the middle of the tension pulley screw, press it down (be very very careful as tension is high), then remove the belt. Release the tension slooowwly after you have removed the belt. Line up new belt, now compress the pulley tension down, slide the belt on the pulley, sloowwly release the pulley tension.

 

The 14mm wrench should not be longer than 8", otherwise u wont have room to push down the tension pulley. the leverage wrench forms an angle, elbow like, that is where the trick is. if you don't do it right, you will have trouble releasing the tension. When you connect 2 wrenches in your hands together you will see what i mean.

 

Correction on removing the belt, you need to push the pulley up to remove the belt. You can use one box wrench on both ends and use a loop rope on one end for leverage.

 

Avoid the gatorback belts from Good year you'll regret it.

 

I bought one for backup, could you elaborate the issue. I bought it because many recommended gator belt.

 

They are noisy making a sound like a high speed drill.
Its confirmed already heres my post about it.
https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-tl-1999-2003-98/gatorback-belt-noise-898885/

 

Yup the gatorback belts sucks (been there, done that)..
I still have the sucker (Virtually Brand New)..



Drove it like 2 weeks.. Could not bear the noise... Got OEM Never looked back.

 

Thanks.

 

Yeah, good stuff to know.....thanks guys for the heads up on "Gatorback" belts.

 

They are good just noisy, I've had it on for 2 years till I got sick of it. I do still have one for the power steering pump no noise there.
Im thinking since that pulley is made with thicker steel than the one from the A/C it emits less noise.

 

^ 2 Years? I could not withstand 2 Weeks... Perhaps they are good or long lasting but I will never know hahaha.


And for P/S I use the Mitsuboshi OEM, Lasted 10 years at least I Expect the new one to do the same..

 

I want to stress that this method of linking two wrenches together for extra leverage is quite a risky task for a newbie, so BEWARE!

 

if you have a hydraulic jack, check the pipe you twist to lock it. sometimes they're large enough to slip around the wrenches for the leverage you need.

 

Yea 2 years of annoyance Wow 10 years on that belt oem all the way.