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I am doing this write up for those of us who have high mileage cars (mine has 213k) and need to replace the serpentine belts. Sorry, I won't have any pictures because I did not think of doing this write up until afterwards, but nonetheless, it should be helpful.
When replacing the belts (you have two, a/c and power steering), you should do them both at the same time. Go to your local parts store, and they should have them in stock. If they carry Gates belts then the part numbers are as follows:
A/C : K060408
Power Steering: K040335
You should double check these numbers when they give you the belts because when I got mine the guy behind the desk was dyslexic or something and he gave me K040355 instead of K040335.
Now that you have the belts, you can get to work. First jack up the passenger side of your car. Take off the front wheel. You will see a black plastic piece that is held on by two plastic screws (phillips head) and two bolts (10mm) (one bolt you can see, the other is on the bottom of the front bumper. After taking these out, you can remove the black plastic piece.
Before taking off the power steering belt (the skinnier one) you have to take off the A/C belt (this is why they recommend doing both at the same time). First, check the tension of the belt just to get a feel for how it should be (this will help you when putting the new ones on).
Towards the front of the engine, above the alternator is an adjusting bolt (12mm). First, loosen the locknut (12mm) on the side, and then you can loosen the adjusting bolt. You need to loosen it quite a bit before you can take the belt off. After you loosen it, the alternator should slide down to give you some freeplay to take the belt off (mine needed a little help to slide). Now that you have freeplay, you can slide the belt off the pulleys.
Near the back of the engine underneath your power steering fluid is the adjusting bolt for the power steering pulley. First loosen the locknut (12mm), then loosen the adjusting bolt (12mm) until you have enough freeplay to take off the belt, and then take it off.
Now that you have both belts off, you are ready to put the new ones on. The power steering on goes on first. It goes around three pulleys (I recommend putting it around the big pulley first and then working it onto the others). Make sure that it is properly seated in all of the grooves. Now you can adjust the tension.
Tighten up the adjusting bolt until there is little tension in the belt (try to get it about the same as the old one was).
Next you can put on the A/C belt. This time I put it on the pulley closest to the front first, then worked it onto the other pulleys. Now tighten the adjusting bolt until the tension is about the same as it was before.
Here, I started my car to look and see how the belts were. There were a little sloppy so I shut off the car and tightened up the adjusting bolts a bit. I started the car again and they looked good, so I turned off the car.
Once you have the tension right, tighten both of the locknuts on the adjusting rods. Now just put the black plastic piece on the fenderwell, put the wheel back on and drop your car back down.
Hopefully this will be helpful, because it took a while to write out
~Jeff
When replacing the belts (you have two, a/c and power steering), you should do them both at the same time. Go to your local parts store, and they should have them in stock. If they carry Gates belts then the part numbers are as follows:
A/C : K060408
Power Steering: K040335
You should double check these numbers when they give you the belts because when I got mine the guy behind the desk was dyslexic or something and he gave me K040355 instead of K040335.
Now that you have the belts, you can get to work. First jack up the passenger side of your car. Take off the front wheel. You will see a black plastic piece that is held on by two plastic screws (phillips head) and two bolts (10mm) (one bolt you can see, the other is on the bottom of the front bumper. After taking these out, you can remove the black plastic piece.
Before taking off the power steering belt (the skinnier one) you have to take off the A/C belt (this is why they recommend doing both at the same time). First, check the tension of the belt just to get a feel for how it should be (this will help you when putting the new ones on).
Towards the front of the engine, above the alternator is an adjusting bolt (12mm). First, loosen the locknut (12mm) on the side, and then you can loosen the adjusting bolt. You need to loosen it quite a bit before you can take the belt off. After you loosen it, the alternator should slide down to give you some freeplay to take the belt off (mine needed a little help to slide). Now that you have freeplay, you can slide the belt off the pulleys.
Near the back of the engine underneath your power steering fluid is the adjusting bolt for the power steering pulley. First loosen the locknut (12mm), then loosen the adjusting bolt (12mm) until you have enough freeplay to take off the belt, and then take it off.
Now that you have both belts off, you are ready to put the new ones on. The power steering on goes on first. It goes around three pulleys (I recommend putting it around the big pulley first and then working it onto the others). Make sure that it is properly seated in all of the grooves. Now you can adjust the tension.
Tighten up the adjusting bolt until there is little tension in the belt (try to get it about the same as the old one was).
Next you can put on the A/C belt. This time I put it on the pulley closest to the front first, then worked it onto the other pulleys. Now tighten the adjusting bolt until the tension is about the same as it was before.
Here, I started my car to look and see how the belts were. There were a little sloppy so I shut off the car and tightened up the adjusting bolts a bit. I started the car again and they looked good, so I turned off the car.
Once you have the tension right, tighten both of the locknuts on the adjusting rods. Now just put the black plastic piece on the fenderwell, put the wheel back on and drop your car back down.
Hopefully this will be helpful, because it took a while to write out
~Jeff
