V6 Auxilary belt tensioner Warning.
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:07 am
Hi all,
Just thought I would warn any V6 owners of a potently expensive job that could be avoided. I've recently had the cam oil seals done on the V6, including cam belt change and all associated pulley/tensioners etc.
During the work it was discovered that the auxiliary belt tensioner bearing was noisy. The garage tried to remove the pulley from the tensioner with the intention of changing the bearing on its own. however the centre bolt appeared to be seized up and eventually the bolt including some of the casting sheared off. So a complete replacement tensioner had to be purchased to replace it at a cost of around £180. When I got the box of removed parts from the garage I investigated the possibility of replacing the bearing on its own as I have a second V6 that may need the same at some time. It would appear that if the pulley could have been removed it would be easy to press out the bearing and fit a new one. This would be considerably cheaper fix. I then turned my attention to the construction of the tensioner to see how it had failed. It then became apparent that centre bolt is a reverse thread, undoing clockwise not anticlockwise. This is because the pulley turns anticlockwise when engine is running. This makes sense as it would mean in practice that the motion of the pulley would be working to keep the bolt tight rather than eventually possibly working it loose. So if you have any need to remove the pulley with the intention of replacing the bearing beware of which way your trying to remove the bolt.
Cheers
Just thought I would warn any V6 owners of a potently expensive job that could be avoided. I've recently had the cam oil seals done on the V6, including cam belt change and all associated pulley/tensioners etc.
During the work it was discovered that the auxiliary belt tensioner bearing was noisy. The garage tried to remove the pulley from the tensioner with the intention of changing the bearing on its own. however the centre bolt appeared to be seized up and eventually the bolt including some of the casting sheared off. So a complete replacement tensioner had to be purchased to replace it at a cost of around £180. When I got the box of removed parts from the garage I investigated the possibility of replacing the bearing on its own as I have a second V6 that may need the same at some time. It would appear that if the pulley could have been removed it would be easy to press out the bearing and fit a new one. This would be considerably cheaper fix. I then turned my attention to the construction of the tensioner to see how it had failed. It then became apparent that centre bolt is a reverse thread, undoing clockwise not anticlockwise. This is because the pulley turns anticlockwise when engine is running. This makes sense as it would mean in practice that the motion of the pulley would be working to keep the bolt tight rather than eventually possibly working it loose. So if you have any need to remove the pulley with the intention of replacing the bearing beware of which way your trying to remove the bolt.
Cheers
