The Idler Pulley doesn't move, it is seized which is why I believe the serpentine came off while driving. The car stalled and died but started right up and drove 100 ft to pull off the road into a secure place to get towed. The belt looked fine, no cracks, no melting, but holy shit was that steering rough . The tensioner pulley on the top spins fine. I am having a hard time understanding if I need to buy the wholeassembly, or just the idler which looks exactly like the tensioner pulley. What are the torque specs for the idler pulley once I replace it. Thanks. I did do my research and haven't found the answer I was looking for.

 

I believe the belt also controls the power steering pump which is probably why the steering felt tough. Can't remember what I bought off the top of my head, but I ordered these three items off of RockAuto and changed it myself:

GATES ACK060841
GATES 38332
GATES K060841

Idler pulley and auto-tensioner should be torqued down to 33 lb/f, but I had a hard time fitting a torque wrench down there. I don't think it matters too much, so long as it's not TOO loose or TOO tight.

 

I believe the belt also controls the power steering pump which is probably why the steering felt tough. Can't remember what I bought off the top of my head, but I ordered these three items off of RockAuto and changed it myself:

GATES ACK060841
GATES 38332
GATES K060841

Idler pulley and auto-tensioner should be torqued down to 33 lb/f, but I had a hard time fitting a torque wrench down there. I don't think it matters too much, so long as it's not TOO loose or TOO tight.

 

thank you so much!

 

the gates kit is on its way!

 

I went with the Gates kit as well. My tensioner seems a little loose when I bought the car at 100k miles. Belt looked fine, but I replaced it along with the tensioner and idler pulley. The bolt to get the tensioner off is a little tricky, you'll need to pull the power steering reservoir out of the way. After that, you'll have access, it was still a little tricky getting the ratchet on the bolt. Took the wrong one off first. :o

I did this as my 105k maintenance. Dealer had done timing belt before I bought. So i replaced tensioner, idler pulley, serpentine belt, plugs, did a 3x3 flush, and did the pressure switches.

Currently looking at doing the tranny filter and replacing the APP sensor. The APP sensor seems to inevitably go on these and my car's acting a bit weird with the accelerator inputs.

My starter also died this weekend, so that's my current priority because I can't really drive to work on my own. I did get the car to start by having my friend tap on the starter with a wrench, but I'm not relying on that and getting my car stuck at work. :p

At 105k miles and the only thing I've really had to replace are an O2 sensor and the battery. It also needs new LCA bushings. Again, super common failure/expected wear item.

 

man, I do feel bad but not that bad, got my transmission remanned and it's driven well for 30k so far, just have to replace these ouelleys and reman the ps pump, been through a starter as well. The bottom bolts for these pulleys are such a bitch and I do have small hands.

 

I didn't look in my TL to see how tight space is but I know when I did the tensioner on an 08 CR-V I took the pulley off of the tensioner and that gave a lot more access to the bolts. I also had to rig a crazy short ratchet extension by using some 1/4 to 3/8 drive adapters since the 3" extension was too long (hit the side wall) and no extension was to short to get at the lower bolt. I wrapped a bit of masking tape around the pulley nut so it fit tightly in the back side of the tensioner arm so re-attaching the pulley later was no issue. Again, I know it's not a CR-V but it's probably more similar in process than different.

 

my kit didn't come with new washer for the idler pulley, So I reused the old one, not a perfect fit but what I'm finding is that when I tighten the idler pulley it gets too tight or too loose, apparently there's a plastic clip that I'm not seeing...

 

nm, didn't use the washer from oem as it was okay with just the bolt...gonna go look for a washer to protect the bearing since it didn't come with it in the gates kit.