2008 Tensioner and Belts
 

Hello everyone, my fiance and I got a rough verbal quote of about 300 last week after we showed a tech a video of the squeaking noise her belts and/or tensioner are making on cold starts from Mazda.

We took it in Saturday to have them do the job, and they quoted us 600 to do the tensioner, serpentine belt, compressor belt, and water pump pulley after the tech got under the hood and took a better look.

I was pretty darn angry that the quote kind of doubled but we never got anything in writing the first time so I guess I should not have been surprised.

We are just going to order oem parts online, and have the job done elsewhere.

I could definitely understand both belts needing replacing, car has about 60K on it, and tensioners do age so I expected that to need replacing, but the pulley was a bit of a surprise. When I asked them to remove the pulley portion the quote went down about $130.

Do you guys really think the water pump pulley needs to be replaced or is that just a money maker for the stealerships? The tensioner is bouncy so I think it would probably be a good idea to get that done.

Hope you guys have some insight, I wasn't able to get any answers from the folks on mazdas247.

Here's the video with the noise it's been making:

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...h_8ea45ef1.jpg

Do the belts actually need replacing? Are they worn, frayed, etc. or is the dealer just saying they need to be replaced to fix the squeak?

If the belts are fine then I'd pick up the tensionor pulley, replace that and go from there. Basically the bearing in the pulley is kind of crappy, leaks out it's grease and squeaks. It's a pretty common problem. A person on the Toronto mazda forum found a generic replacement for ~$27 vs. the $140 OEM one. Even if it craps out frequently you could still replace it several times without spending as much money. IIRC he said the aftermarket one was actually better quality than the OEM one. HERE's the thread on that forum. I'm not sure what autoparts store in the US would carry it, but presumably you could just find one with the same diameter/specs and you'd be fine.

Beyond that there's absolutely no need to pay someone to do this. All you need is a 14mm socket, breaker bar, and socket wrench. Use the breaker bar/socket to pull the tension off the belt, remove the belt from the pulley. Then remove the bolt holding the pulley on (it's left threaded so righty loosey, lefty tighty), swap the pulleys and reinstall in reverse order. You could literally do this in 5 minutes if you're just doing the pulley.

So like I said try that first. If you still have the squeaking afterwards then go worry about the belts and the water pump pulley.

Oh and just an aside my car has 106k miles on it and the belts still look fine, so unless there's an issue your belts at 60k should be alright. Again check for fraying, cracking, etc.

Thanks for the response. I will look a little closer at the belts but I do think they may need to be replaced in addition to the tensioner. They have that glazed look and a reddish discoloration going on. I will take a better look myself though to double check.

My 08 is doing the same thing at 73k, I have yet to do anything with it though. The belt still seems fine aside from the discoloration that I see yours has also.

I have ordered a new tensioner pulley from Ebay for $14 though.

Keep us posted.

Maybe it's just me, but I've not heard of a car built in the last couple of decades or so which will burn through a belt and tensioner in less than eighty to one-hundred thousand miles. Sixty thousand miles sounds way-way too soon; the factory belts on my 2009 Mazda3 (which has over fifty-five thousand on the clock) are in fine shape and the pullies and tensioner do their jobs without complaint. That said, when I drive through heavy rain and the A/C compressor clutch engages I do hear a momentary belt noise while the compressor comes up to speed (something I consider normal).

The problem is not so much with the tensioner or the belt itself but rather the quality of the pulley. They use a plastic pulley where the bearings are stamped into it. That and apparently these bearings leak pretty easily. Like the person on the Toronto forum noted if it were a metal pulley where the bearings could be removed this likely wouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for the replies guys, good people on this forum.

I bet the belts are ok, and I will be sure to do the tensioner on my own first.

The only reason I worry about wear on the belts is because she bought the car used and it was previously a rental, but again, its still only 60k miles or below.

I will follow up when the parts come in.-Mike

Clearly the part I ordered was not for the 2.3, as it was listed as such. They sent me a smooth pulley when the 2.3 takes a ribbed pulley.

Where are these available at?; everywhere I look wants to sell the entire tensioner assembly.

You may want to check before sending it back. I believe there was a change in the pulley at some point so it's possible it changed from ribbed to smooth. Not sure.