Serpantine Belt Replacement
 

Quick question for those more mechanically savvy.

Mine failed while I was driving, got it towed home. sounds like a pulley seized, as the belt is not shredded to pieces.

I looked up repair videos on youtube and it doesn't seem to be the biggest issues to repair, I may not be the most mechanically savvy but I am on EI right now and i'm not ballin out of control so I don't have a whole lot to do until I find another plumbing gig so I might as well try it myself.

So what do I have to check while im replacing it? I was told to just spin the pulleys by hand but how do I know what has failed?

would help to know what car/year you're dealing with

2005 Focus ST!

So a duratec 2.3L.

Spin all the pulleys by hand. They should all turn freely except for the crank obviously.
If it spit out the belt, its gotta be pretty obvious.
Do a visual inspection and see if all pulleys look "square" against the front cover. If there's coolant leaks it might the water pump.

I'm thinking the tensioner failed on me. Just looking at the belt right now it seems in pretty good condition.

When you pull your tensioner out, see if you can replace just the bearing. It will be cheaper than buying a new unit.

I was able to do this with an idler pulley on my Toyota.

i saw that, but isn't a new tensioner just 50 bucks?

If you're on EI, you have more time than money.

True but if it uses a popular bearing, the bearing may be like 5 to 10 bucks. There should be a number on the bearing and you can just google it for prices. Princess auto has a few if you are lucky.

It seeks like the pulley from the alternator has fallen off completely.

So im assuming its just best to replace the whole alternator.

Might just tow it to a mechanic at this point.

Same as the tensioner, it may be possible to just change the f/r bearings on the alternator.

So stupid how parts manufacturers make it more and more difficult to REPAIR parts and force you to replace them altogether. Back in the day most parts stores stocked alt and starter rebuild kits and you could re/re/re in under an hour.

That aside, should be easy enough to find a diy online, to at least re/re the alternator yourself. Once you get the lower splash cover off, should be pretty straight forward. Don't forget to disconnect the neg batt cable.

you generally need access to a press for this type of repair

Its the 2.3l duratec and ive seen tutorials and i dont want to deal with it. Its not an easy job. Ill just leave it to the machanic.

Probably a 500 dollar repair too ><