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Replacing the Alternator/PS Belt, MY2005 2.5L Turbo


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So the general consensus is to change these every 60k miles I assume. I wouldn't want to take a chance of belts getting as bad as this.

 

Anyone have any experience of Gates vs. OEM?

 

They are a snap to inspect. Just look at the ribbed part of the belt. If you see any cracks in the rubber, replace it. It's a piece of cake to do. Just take a peek next time you're checking your oil.

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There are two belts. For the AC there is an adjustable tension pulley, loosen the belt with it, take the old one off/put the new one on, use the pulley to properly tension it. More or less so, it's been a while since I replaced mine and forgotten the details. This reminds me I need to adjust tension to stop that occasional belt slipping noise I get in the morning...

 

PS: you need to loosen the bolt in the center of the tension pulley first to allow it to travel up and down when turning the adjustment bolt, and tighten it back to fix the pulley in place in the end, I think that's right...

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would it be anything similar to this? it's on an impreza but it seems the general concept might be the same

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adkvVaYOIoU]YouTube - Changing Air conditioning and Power steering Belts on a Impreza[/ame]

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  • 2 weeks later...
At 34,000 miles and 5 years, I removed the OEM (Mitsuboshi) Alt/PS belt and inspected it. Found zero cracks in it. Will keep it stored in my car as an emergency spare. I installed a Dayco PolyRib 'W" belt. Dayco says the W design reduces belt noise, but I have noticed no change in the noise level. The ribs on the Dayco are about half the depth of those on the OEM belt, but this has not resulted in any problems, so far.
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Alright guys; I just had my belts replaced. After a couple days, they started squealing terribly. I'm sure my neighbors hate me every morning when I start my car at 5am. It's ridiculous!! After a few minutes of yelling at me, the belts go quiet. I imagine that it has something to do with the tension of one of the belts. Any suggestions on how to determine which belt? Can a belt be too tight? How can I tell if the belt is too loose?
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Likely one or both belts are loose. W/o the proper belt tension gauge it may be difficult to tell, try to press on both belts with your finger, you may be able to tell which one is more loose, if so go for it. If not just tighten one, if it doesn't help then the other. Or just go to the place where you had the work done and complain, they should fix it for free as they didn't properly tension the belts in the first place. I get an occasional squeak in the morning too, but too lazy to fix it.

 

The other unlikely reason may be the alternator or AC bearings are going bad, so if tightening doesn't help I'd look into that.

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Well I just did this last night and now when i do to stop the belts sound like they are squealing, but only when i press the brakes. This morning the fat belt was loose I tightened it up. The squealing stopped, but as I pulled up to work it started again. Anybody ever had this happen? I guess I will be checking the bearings later.
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  • 11 months later...

Thank you for the write-up and pictures, AndrewZ. I would have made this worlds more complicated than it needed to be had I not found this.

 

After 71k miles on my '05, the belt looked similar to the photos already uploaded. I was experiencing the squeak and notchy steering before the fix. With the new belt in hand, the 10 minute fix made my wife think I'm a badass. :D

 

Handiest how-to I found on the subject. Search FTW.

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  • 1 year later...

so i had this same problem around 180,000 miles. But upon removal of everything i found that the tensioner (bolt C) is also broken... i can't find this part ANYWHERE! i need some serious help finding this part. if anyone could help i would really appreciate it

 

thanks!

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  • 2 months later...
Please don't pay anyone to change this belt, it's the easiest repair I've ever done. Almost as easy as changing your air filter. Mine lasted 113k before it self destructed.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Andrew, thanks for this walkthrough. It helped me out a bunch doing a drive belt change on my own '05 OBXT.

 

After loosening the lock bolts for both belt assemblies, I had to back out the tension bolts almost the entire way to get enough slack to get the old belts off. Looking back on it, it's a pretty simple process changing these belts. Nice that they're so easy to access.

 

Cheers and thanks again.

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  • 9 months later...

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