Sunday, just moving the car from the drive to the garage, I started hearing odd noises from under the hood. I popped the hood, and the noise seemed to be coming from the serpentine belt area. I looked on the ground, and under that side of the car I found some pieces of metal and some fluid. The metal bits were needle bearings. There was also some dark fluid splattered around, which at first I thought was from the water pump, but apparently was not because there was so little of it.

I think it is the idler pulley, and the needle bearings were from that pulley. I have never changed this, but it does not seem out of my league. Does anyone have advice/info on what I should do and what tools I would need?

Thanks,
Rod

 

I forgot to mention that this is a 4-door, 1999 Sable.

Is there any way to tell for sure which pulley is bad?

Thanks,
Rod

 

with the belt on, it may be hard to tell, but if the pulley has cratered enough (lost enough bearings to allow play on the bolt) then you might be able to tell by seeing which pulley is not centered on it''s bolt. check the tensioner pulley as well. If I remember right, they are very close to each other. replacing it generally requires the right size socket and a break-over bar (really long socket handle) to get enough leverage to loosen those bolts. If you have a torque wrench and the specs for those bolts, I''d use it when re-installing the bolts to make sure you don''t over tighten the bolts on the new pulley. I think you can get both those pulleys for around $25-28 at most parts huts.

 

Thank you for replying. I forgot to mention that I found needle bearings under the car, and a small amount of fluid or grease. How does this affect the severity of the damage?

Thanks again,
Rod

 

basically you don''t want to drive the car until you get it fixed if you can help it. Running the engine more will most likely cause more damage. This is why I think you may be able to tell which pulley it is by seeing which one is possibly leaning wrong (not centered) on it''s bolt. If you need the car for a life or death situation, use it. but be aware that if the pulley falls apart enough to come off the support bolt, the belt will come off and the water pump will stop (along with the AC, power steering pump, alternator, and everything else driven by the belt). If you have another car to make a run to the parts place in (or a friend to give you a lift) you can take the belt off and check the pulleys. the one that won''t spin freely (talking about the idler and tensioner pulleys) or seems to move with a grinding feel to it, or has the bearing seals broken is the one to replace. I''m pretty sure it''s the idler pulley and not the tensioner. my mom''s taurus had the idler pulley fall apart on it and spray the bearing grease everywhere.

Good luck with it all. Hope it fixes quick and easy. (break-over bar will help!)

 

Ok, thanks for the response. We have a 3rd ''fun'' car, a ''85 300ZX that we fixed up. My wife is driving that instead of her car. I would not let her drive it anyway, until I can get this fixed.

Thanks again,
Rod