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After a new belt is added and the car driven for a few hundred miles, should the belt be re-tentioned to compensate for stretch?

 
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No the tensioner is an automatic tensioner. Just watch out and don't use an old tensioner with a new belt cause some times it puts to much strain on the old tensioner and freezes up and then you loose the belt

 
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^what he said. did u replace ur power steering belt as well as ur alternator belt while u were at it?

 
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All drive belts, water pump, new tensioner, new spark plug seals, new t-belt. It's been like 10k on these items.

But back to the timing belt. You said the tensioner is automatic. Now I already understand that, but that could mean two things:

1) The tensioner auto-tensions itself to the pre-existing belt tension but after this setting is locked in, it remains at this setting for good or until tensioner bolt is loosened and then re-torqued.

2)The tensioner auto-tensions itself to the pre-existing belt tension, but the tensioner re-adjusts to timing belt as the belt expands over time.

Now, from my personal experience with the tensioner, the answer is number 1. Why? Because the tensioner is adjusted with the bolt loose during which the spring on the tensioner adjusts the position of the tensioner itself. Then the bolt is closed. Therefore, the question still stands: Due to the belt expanding over time, is a loosening/re-tightening of the tensioner bolt desireable to compensate for slack?

 
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well technically you have to loosen the tensioner to change the belt, so it will readjust by itself to the new belt.

 
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Well dude, I think you missed the point. (see post above yours)

 
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well idk then, i thought it adjusted itself to make sure the belt is always tight (even as it ages and expands). i thought that was the whole point of an auto tensioner, to automatically adjust the tension so you dont have to.

 
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Well I hope that's the case, but that's not what I recall. From my recollection, it's only an auto tensioner with the locking bolt loose. Maybe someone can clearify...

 
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the tensioner is kinda of a 3 piece assembly (two outer pieces one that presses up against the block, one that the head of the bolt presses against, and one piece thats in between thats on bearings on an off-centered shaft). Bolting it down does hold it in place but due to one of the sets of bearings in the tensioner the spring will still pull on it even after it is bolted down. In theory though if you were to cut the spring there is enough pressure on the bearings from the bolt that the tensioner won't loosen up but the spring is also safe guard. both the bolt and the spring kinda work hand in hand so its' kinda both 1 and 2.

Now the timing belt is made completely differently from your alternator or power steering belt those belts you set the tension yourself and some time you can over strain belt and the belt has to be tighter than a timing belt because it runs on pressure not teeth. so the timing belt really does not need all that much pressure to stay on and run fine which is one reason it doesn't wear out fast or stretch. so once the tensioner is set just leave it till the next time the belt needs to be changed

 
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well then over time wouldnt the belt just fall off when it gets too loose?

 
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Thanks! so what happends if you tighten say... the power steering belt too tight?

 
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What, the timing belt? I would think the teeth would be off.

 
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I've never seen in a service manual where there was a RE-adjustment procedure, or service interval to check timing belt tension. If the belt were to "NEED" re-adjustment then it would mean that it had stretched significantly. I would think that if it had streched that much it would be altering cam timing enough to effect the way the engine was running. Maybe im wrong.

 
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ps belt too tight would stress the belt and possibly put extra wear on the pump i would think

 
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You bring up a good point. Regardless of how the tensioner works, there's definitely no need to re-adjust. The car should be fine for 90-110k after initial adjustement. It would be costly and absurd if you had to take it to the shop to get it retentioned after "x" number of miles. But despite the fact that you don't need to touch it anymore, I still wonder if a re-tentioning would benefit the engine performance in some way.

 
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Actually yes it will I had this happen on a 99 prelude it only had 60 thousand miles on it but it was over 6 years old and the belt finaly gave enough that it hopped a couple of teeth on one of the cams and bent half the valves. actually from what I have found when the timing belt does go it does not usually just snap it it tends to hop a couple of teeth on the gear usually when there is a high load on the car so when it does jump it also gets pulled off to the side a bit then pulled down and ripped apart by the gears and since it can take so long for the engine to stop spinning at highway speed the belt gets ripped in half from the time it jumps till the time the car actually stops.

Also when it does stretch that much it you would think that it would alter the cam timming but since the the teeth on the belt are so small and Rounded and there is so much pressure from the springs in the valve train that it tend to just jump instead of changing the cam timming those engines don't like to give up cam timing unless you have an adjustable cam gear lol

 
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it just wears out faster if it is too loose it will squeal and squeek if it is too tight the belt just wears out faster and snaps wich is really no biggie since it is so easy to replace it's not like your car is going to blow up or stop driving if they go. The power steering pump shouldn't wear out any faster I never actually seen a power steering pump wear out from the belt but given enough miles it could happen my guess would be 300 to 500 thousand miles for the PS Pump to wear out?

 
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ahhh don't you just love timing belts!!!

 
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has anyone ever changed the ps fluid? im at 85k and it still looks new.