How to change/remove/tighten your cars belts

Res

Well-Known Member
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Hey guys

so this is a tutorial on how to change or remove or tighten the aircon, power-steering and alternator belts

Read before you start:
this tute is just a general guide
i am not a professional and i am not liable for any damage you cause to your car during this process
so if something f**ks up on you dont come blaming me


Starting steps:

(park car on level ground)
1. put chocks/stoppers/bricks/ a large piece of wood. behind your back wheels (to stop roll-back)... ALSO apply hand brake (to be extra sure)

2. jack up the front of your car ....best place to jack it up that i know is what i would call a support bar that runs almost down the centre of your engine bay (just a bit off centre to the left)
(alt. jack up the whole car if you want)

3. safety first, make sure your car is securely jacked up, i put some bricks under my front wheels so that the jack wasnt doing all the work

4. pop your bonnet

5. looking from the top you will be able to see these screws, loosen the screws with the blue circle around them in the pictures
(some screws are circled in more than 1 of the pictures to show different angles for better understanding)

fist 2 are near ur alternator (loosen the shorter one first)
DSCF5638.jpg


next look under your alternator and there is this one, loosen it a tiny bit and the alternator should roll forward on the rail and give the belt enough slack to come off
DSCF5644.jpg


now from on top again, look at your power steering pump, there is 2 bolts you can see looking through the pully, loosen both of them, one will allow the tightening bolt to loosen and the other will loosen the pivot point of your pwr steering pump..... after that loosen alot of the thread off the bolt un front of the pully and the one circled on the other side
DSCF5646.jpg


and the final crap to loosen for the aircon
from looking on top of the engine bay.... all the way down there is a bolt that locks the aircon compressor on the rail, loosen it
(this pic also includes some of the powersteering bolts circled)
DSCF5640.jpg


and from under the aircon, loosen those 2 bolts, then the aircon and pwersteering pump will slide back on the rails with very little force and the bolt will be able to be removed
DSCF5642.jpg


6. reverse the steps and make sure the belts are tight, take the car out of gear and let it idle, if any squeaking occurs tightern belts, turn aircon on and if squeaking occurs tighten the aircon belt
if all is good and your happy, set the car back down slowly and take her for a little drive to make sure its all running good

7. if squeaking occurs the next day or just after the belts may have streched (if new) so tighten them again.




THE END

thanks for reading
 
Great DIY there mate! I've added the pages from the workshop manual which Drakos got as a reference incase people want the torque specifications,etc...

On a sidenote though my old man reckons bricks can break if they have weight put on them like that and instead using blocks of hard wood is better. But of course best still is a $25 set of stands form SCA!
 

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yep thats right, i just used bricks because thats what i had handy and i used 3 bricks to support each tyre, so overall they should have been alryt

and yes good idea to get the actual equipment. and for 25$ its fair reasonable (i just havent got around to it)
 
Next time your at the store for oil,etc check them out. I bought mine when I had my Excel and in 2-3 years I've used them heaps so I'd say it's money well spent! I also just a set of metal wheel chocks because they werent too dear...
 
yeh i got some chocks, but yeh the stands i should get
they will be usefull to service my car next weekend ^_^
 
yeh when im at my parents doing brake / rotor swaps n stuff i always put wooden blocks under the car - especially with tight bolts and tugging them with a shifter / spanner or what ever to try to loosen them - i wouldnt like to run the risk of pullin the car off the jack n breaking the rotor or mounting pieces - and if ive got my arm underneath the car def dont want it crashin down - so theyre just there for a precaution
 
Any chance of getting these photos working again??

My belts are squeaking like crazy atm. Need them tightened!
 
Damn it. Need to install a new air con belt, and was hoping to use this guide but the pics are gone. Many sads.
 
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