Don't ignore your belt....

[MikeinNH67]

I'm here confessing that I ignored my belt too long even after my inspection guy said it was worn out. I forgot about it and then it shredded on me. It then proceeded to go behind the crank pulley and wreck my crank seal. Below pics show the pulley with the belt wrapped around it, the junk seal and the tool I made to hold the pulley. All in all not a terrible job. The pulley holder can be bought pretty cheaply online but that was close to a week to get it, I built this one in an hour or so.

 

[metramm]

Dang! Glad you were able to fix it.

I just had mine replaced along with my alternator that died on me last week.

Belt had at least 110,000 miles on it as it was on my truck when I bought it.

Glad I have a new OEM one installed.

 

[rdruss]

I was getting some intermittent light squealing for awhile and then went out to leave last week and really loud screeching immediately on start up ... tensioner pulley seized! I had ordered a kit just the week prior anticipating replacing in the spring ... wrong ... did it last weekend and it is a big job. Have to pull fan/shroud/overflow reservoir/power steer pump/alternator/cam pulley cover and dust cover to remove tensioner. This is on the V8.

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Do YOU have a harbor freight nearby? They are usually great for specific job tools like that.

Ive been told that usually its bad pulleys that cause the belt to break, but again if its there long enough in the heat etc, can imagine itll break down given long enough

 

[MikeinNH67]

Yeah, I was dreading fixing it but actually easier than I thought it would be.

Ouch on the tensioner swap, I have a bit of squeak now so will need to figure that out. The pulleys are the same age as the belt, maybe 3 years but it was a cheapo belt as I didn't realize my alternator bearing was seizing up and breaking belts in the long direction.

Yes to Harbor Freight but I've never seen anything so specific for a pulley tool there. This is one brand.

Amazon.com: Sunluway Harmonic Damper Pulley Holding Tool Crankshaft Crank Holder Removal Wrench Tool Fit for Toyota Lexus : Automotive

 

[AuSeeker]

I was getting some intermittent light squealing for awhile and then went out to leave last week and really loud screeching immediately on start up ... tensioner pulley seized! I had ordered a kit just the week prior anticipating replacing in the spring ... wrong ... did it last weekend and it is a big job. Have to pull fan/shroud/overflow reservoir/power steer pump/alternator/cam pulley cover and dust cover to remove tensioner. This is on the V8.

I had the same thing happen to me on my V8, I just bought a new pulley with the bearing, not the entire tensioner, it only took me about 45 minutes to replace the pulley/bearing and a new belt, the only thing I removed was the old belt and the old pulley/bearing, not very hard at all.

I did however measure the old pulley's diameter because on 2003s V8s and some 2004s V8s the pulley is larger, about halfway through the 2004 build year Toyota decreased the size of the pulley from around 4" to around 3 1/2" it's actually a metric size, if I remember correctly it was 102mm for the early pulley and 90mm for the later pulley.

Also the serpentine belt is also different sizes depending which tensioner pulley the V8 has,

Edit: I corrected the year and sizes of the tensioner pulley, I had the sizes switched from what they actually are.

 

[rdruss]

I had the same thing happen to me on my V8, I just bought a new pulley with the bearing, not the entire tensioner, it only took me about 45 minutes to replace the pulley/bearing and a new belt, the only thing I removed was the old belt and the old pulley/bearing, not very hard at all.

I did however measure the old pulley's diameter because on 2003s V8s and some 2004s V8s the pulley is smaller, about halfway through the 2004 build year Toyota increased the size of the pulley from around 3 1/2" to around 4" it;s actually a metric size, if I remember correctly it was 90mm for the early pulley and 100mm for the later pulley.

Also the serpentine belt is also different sizes depending which tensioner pulley the V8 has

Yes, in retrospect I could have done the same and saved myself a lot of work! I bought a Gates kit; belt/tensioner/idler. The tensioner I took off had a 4" pulley, the replacement was 3.5". But now I know what i'm in for if I have to do the alternator ... not too bad.

 

[gimlithepirate]

I did all of this as a part of the timing belt service ~6k miles ago. All the different parts you need to replace are a PITA, but having it all done at once is worth it.