Belt change how-to with photos

Without consulting my maint book, I would say, if, it is too loose, it will slip AND if it is too tight it will bind and possibly break or burn out a bearing. Seriously normal deflection on almost any type of auto belt is .25 to .5 inch at the longest run. If nobody addresses this you can ask the Toyota Parts/Service desk, since you are going to buy the belt there, right? You should not hear a squeak nor should you smell burning rubber. :cheer2:

 

I changed mine a week ago on a 2007, using these instructions. It was a 30 minute job, at most. Shouldn't have taken that long but I was uncertain since it was my first time. An added bonus was that I was able to spot coolant leakage at the water pump pully/shaft. Not a lot, but enough to constitute a leak. Took the car in and got the pump replaced, under (extended) warranty, at 53,500 miles.

 

Well, it's been just over two weeks and so far so good! No squeaks and no breaking down on the side of the road.

rocketman7

 

any suggestions if the nut and pulley were accidentally removed?

friend and i were working and absent mindly removed the tensioner pulley nut and pulley. When we try to reinstall and tighten the tensioner bolt (12mm) the tensioner pulley ends up being crooked.

 

found the problem, when the tensioner pulley came off, the bearing on the inside of the pulley came off without my notice. i found it laying on the ground behind my rear wheel, it rolled quite the ways!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting up the pictures! My wife and I are active duty stationed at Edwards AFB, Ca. We live in California city and are about 1 hr away from Toyota. We're a little tight on money right now, due to our new move out here, and I wasn't happy when the service tech said it's going to be around $150 or more to replace the serp belt. Now, I talked my wife into letting me do it. Belt is $25 out the door from the dealership so, you saved this military family $125 or more! :rockon: Thank you!!!

 

Thanks, used this thread's advice when changing my belt. Comments in http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...oubleshooting/74279-cracks-in-drive-belt.html

 

Just helped my brother changed the original belt on my 06 with 164k miles. There were cracks in it but it seems perfectly capable of turning the water pump. The old belt did not stretch as it was the same length as the new one.

The pictures were very helpful. Thanks! The pulley nut was very tight. We used a cheater pipe/bar (to extend the wrench) to get it off.

He is here for the Thanksgiving and will be driving back to CA. It'll have 167k miles soon!

 

I, too, thank galaxee and her DH for the awesome text and photos of how to change the serpentine belt. Fremont Toyota wanted $219 to install a new belt in my '06 Prius. F that! I bought the belt online for $13.69 plus shipping. With galaxee's and DH's instructions, I had the new one installed in 19 minutes. Took a few more minutes because I re-did the tensioning of the belt to make double sure. And I'll check tension again in a week after the new belt is worn in. Photos attached for the heck of it. Typical cracking on the interior, light glazing on the exterior. But in no way in danger of failing, based on integrity of the exterior material.

 

Thanks for this write up, it was a great help. I too had difficulty getting the new belt wound around the upper pulleys. After a few tries, I loosened up the tensioner as far as possible, wound the belt around the upper pulleys, then was able to get my left arm in just far enough to get the belt to go on the crank pulley. Then just carefully tightened the tensioner while holding and double checking the positioning of the the belt. My first time, so it all took about 20 minutes.

 

Thanks for this write up, it was a great help. I too had difficulty getting the new belt wound around the upper pulleys. After a few tries, I loosened up the tensioner as far as possible, wound the belt around the upper pulleys first, then was able to get my arm in just far enough to get the belt to go on the crank pulley. Then just carefully tightened the tensioner while holding and double checking the positioning of the the belt.

 

Just did this on my 07' prius. Took about 30 minutes. Not bad.

 

Thank you posting this!
So very helpful. I just used your step-by-step instructions for my 2007 Prius, and knocked it out in about 45 min.
That hint to tap the 12mm bolt really helped lower the tensioner.
Also, I marked the head of my bolt with a sharpie to know exactly how much to torque it on the reassembly.

 

Off Subject: What did the check valve in the cooling system cost you to repair. I am facing the same issue currently? Thank-you!

 

I replaced the belt on my 2007 earlier today. After many failed attempts to get the belt correctly positioned, I took the wheel off. Unfortunately, I unfastened the splash guard instead of just trying to peel a section of it back after taking off the 10mm bolt. In the process I broke the middle plastic fastener, the one that goes into the square hole in the sheet metal :-(

Any help in determining what that part is called will be greatly appreciated.

 

Found the part (Toyota 90189-06157); it looks like there is no way to take out the installed part without damaging it!

 

I tried to do this two days ago, but the 14 mm tensioner nut would not come off. Any ideas on getting it off? Even though I used a socket, it still stripped the nut a bit, so I'll get a new one from Toyota. Thanks!

 

Update: I had to use a 16-inch ratchet to get sufficient torque to loosen the nut. That thing was a bear. Next time I might have to replace the nut and tensioner because the nut was stripped a bit. Toyota said the nut and tensioner pulley are sold only together and that the set costs $75. Gotta love it.

Anyway, it took me about 15-20 minutes to complete. I spent most of that time trying to get the belt on there. It will probably take about 5-10 minutes next time. Thanks for the write-up and photos. They were a big help!

 

Excellent post! I just changed my V belt, it took about 35 minutes & was extremely easy. I had a bid from a local repair company for $155. I did it myself & purchased the belt from my local Toyota dealer for $20.42. It is possible to change the belt from just the top, although I jacked up the car to see if I had the belt on the crankshaft correctly. Again Very Very easy!!!