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I bought my car last week from a private sale. Didn't realize that there was some damage to the serpentine belt until I floored it on the highway. Heard a flapping sound. Anyways, I ordered a new one and should be here tomorrow. Anybody ever change one yet? Any words of wisdom or experience to share? Looks like a long nut on the tensioner needs to be turned to loosen the belt, then replace with new belt. It looks pretty tight space to get at. Maybe the turbo wasn't such a good idea? Lol. Any help greatly appreciated!
10thgen @mac25 . Equipped with EPS, so no PS belt.
Luckily, the only rubber belt on the L15B7 is labeled as just the "alternator belt," despite the fact that the water pump and a/c compressor both run off of it, too
Here's a layout of that belt:
Starting with the far left pulley and following the top-most part of the belt in order of what it touches:
Alternator
Water pump
A/C compressor
Crank pulley
Auto-tensioner
I'm 99% sure that's the order. Took a look at a picture of a removed L15B7 and pulley #3 has that A/C clutch looking face to it. It's cold outside for a desert rat like me to pop my hood at the moment.
BUUUUTT, just looking at it, Loosen the auto tensioner bolt and it should give you enough slack to pull the belt off. Looks like you may have to do some dissecting in order to gain access to the belt though. Motor mount and maybe a hose? Some really small hands may help? Either that or access from below might have much more clearance. That actually seems like a more feasible course of action than to attack it from the top. I'd remove the entire plastic shield (instead of just the aluminum "oil change" shield) to do this. It's just a bunch of plastic push clips, but be careful because those suckers like to break easily, especially the ones below the car. I broke 2 of them installing my Type R subframe brace, but luckily have a small stash of 'em when I bought some spares at the dealership. List price is like 50 cents each. Local dealership charges more than a dollar each. There also might be a couple 10mm bolts there, too.
I'm really not looking forward to that time when I gotta do that.
Thanks Riceboy, I just got the new belt last night, and I'm going to attempt to install it after work. I'll let you know how I make out. It looks like I have some fairly good access towards the firewall and can access the alternator pretty good. But I believe you are correct that the bottom shield may need to come off etc. My car only has 60000kms (37000mi), and from what I read, the belt should have lasted much longer. I will also need to inspect all pulleys for any slop or play. Should be fun...lol
Fitting a 19mm wrench on the tensioner bolt and pulling it towards the front of the car loosens the belt. Reached in behind to the alternator and slipped the belt off. Got the old one out with a few snags. Installing the new one is much harder. Might have to take more stuff off, but not sure. I could not find any documentation online on how to do this properly. I cannot find any service manuals either. I will get it but gonna take time.
With some luck, I was able to get new one installed. I used a couple of long pry bars to help align and position the belt onto the pulleys. Holding the end near the alternator, I loosened the tensioner and then slid the new belt on. It's all on and running now. Hopefully somebody has an easier way of doing this. Just hope I don't have to go back there for quite a while....at least when all the damn snow is gone!
02-05-2020
