Replacing Serpentine Belt

pdizzle · Oct 25, 2009, 06:21 PM

I have a 2003 Lancer oz and my serpentine belt is making a squeak noise. I took it to a shop and they told me $100 to fix it. I want to do it myself but don't know the part number or where to start replacing it. Any help will be appreciated.

link62 · Oct 25, 2009, 08:49 PM

shouldnt cost no more then like 10-20 at autozone for the belt, go to ur nearest one and ask for it or look online and its not hard just got to tighten it right, i just did mine and the squeaking can be caused by being to loose or to tight

Lumpy · Oct 25, 2009, 08:59 PM

I would say look at the belt yourself. If they said $100 to fix, that more likely means "replace" than it means "tighten" They aren't difficult to change yourself either. I haven't looked under my hood for a while now (been driving the fiancee's car to work) but from what I remember there's two bolts in the back left of the engine; one that must be loosened before turning the other one (functions as a lock for the other one), and the other one that actually loosens the belt. That will loosen one belt, the other gets loosened with a bolt or two (don't remember as clearly) at the front left. It's pretty much just untightening the lock bolts, then untightening the adjustment bolts until they're loose enough to remove. The Lancer doesn't have a tensioner pulley, like many cars would, instead it has tensioner/adjustment bolts. Above all, draw a diagram or take a picture of the way the belts are routed before removing anything. As far as how tight to tighten them, that's harder to describe. "Hand tight" would be my best words to describe it. You don't want it so tight that it's stretching the belts, but not so loose that it's in danger of flying off at high speed. If I were you, I would search for a How To, I'm pretty sure there's one on here that I followed.

Good luck

lilazn64 · Oct 25, 2009, 09:09 PM

lmao! do it yourself
inspect the belt first. See if it's dry rotted(basically if it has cracks in the belt. If it's not, then all you need to check for is the proper tension. Easy/quick way to do this is grab the belt and try and flip it 180. If it turns more than 180 then tighten it, if you're barely able to flip it, then loosen it. (Make sure the engine is off first! Just had to make sure lol)
The tensioner to tighten or loosen the belt is in the front of the engine under the power steering pump and above the AC compressor (im pretty sure. I could be wrong since I haven't seen my car in over 7 months.)

link62 · Oct 25, 2009, 09:16 PM

How to: Change Belts and/or Crank Pulley for 04+ ES
pic of the tension bolt

lilazn64 · Oct 26, 2009, 02:29 AM

haha still got me a pretty good memory of my beloved lancer!

pdizzle · Oct 27, 2009, 02:15 PM

Thanks for all the help i need to replace it because it has cracks, but i do have one more question. would this belt be better than the regular v-ribbed belt or not?

Link:http://shop.oreillyauto.com/ProductD...e=1063&PTSet=A

Thanks again guys!

link62 · Oct 27, 2009, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilazn64

haha still got me a pretty good memory of my beloved lancer!

haha so when you coming back state side

pdizzle · Oct 28, 2009, 08:24 PM

So I changed my serpentine belt because a shop that I took my car to said that it needed to be change so anyways I changed the belt with a gatorback belt but the noise that I had didnt go away

. Any clues were this noise could be coming from?

Thanks

link62 · Oct 28, 2009, 10:15 PM

its the belt im having the same problem right now after doing my belt its the tension you prob still need to tighten it some more or it may be to tight if you out some of that belt liquid on it it will make it go away for a while

pdizzle · Oct 29, 2009, 12:37 PM

Where could I buy that liquid and what is it called?

Thanks

03lances · Oct 29, 2009, 12:47 PM

Its belt dressing and you can get it at any auto parts store, even walmart sells it.

pdizzle · Oct 29, 2009, 01:21 PM

Awesome thanks again for the help guys!!

lilazn64 · Oct 31, 2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by link62

haha so when you coming back state side

in May! 6 more months!

lilazn64 · Oct 31, 2009, 08:37 PM

i wouldn't suggest the belt quieter. That stuff usually makes the belt dry up and deteriorate faster.
As for the squealing, you need to check the tension like i mentioned above (twisting the belt) or one of your pulleys may be going bad or just needs to be lubed up.