Tensioner pulley

I also walked in to Autozone and picked up a new tensioner for my '97 for less than $50. I had a new belt sitting in my garage that I was going to replace when the weather got cooler so it gave me an excuse to go ahead and put the new belt on too. Once the belt is off, as mentioned before there is only one bolt holding the tensioner on. From start to finish figure on less than an hour. It helps to get someone to hold the ratchet on the tensioner to relieve the tension when removing and reinstalling the belt. Figuring on less than $50 for the part (at retail cost) your mechanic is charging over $330 for what should amount to less than an hours worth of labor. I would say you are getting ripped off.

The previous owner of my 95 Explorer had both the tensioner and belt replaced by a local repair shop back in Dec 2002. The bill came to $179. Pretty high but no way as bad as your quote!!

JP

All,

What are the symptoms of a bad tensioner pulley? Any noise I should be looking for? We have a '96 XLT, and so far it seems OK.

Have 120K miles.

Thanks,

Mike

My '97 had a light, grinding sound at idle with the hood up at about 105K. The tensioner looked fine, but having read many stories of them going out around 100K, I decided to pick one up. When I started pulling off the old one, it fell apart before I could get it out. Looking at it I could see wear marks where the pieces wore together to the point that only luck held it together. I think I paid about $35 for a new one. If the pulley has a lot of front to back play in it with the belt off, it is probably getting to be time for a new one. With 120K on it, once you've got the belt off, might as well put a new pulley on for $35 since the hardest part of the job is already done.