I believe my belt tension pulley is making noise and want to replace it. Tension on the belt seems fine. They have a $20 option of just replacing the pulley wheel or $44 for the whole tensioner, that includes pulley and spring. Those who have had the noisy idler pulley, what have you replaced?

 

whole thing

its not too expensive via cromier

 

I think mine is making noise also, but how did you narrow the noise down to the tensioner pulley? I don't want to replace it and find that didn't fix it.

 

You can get a long screwdriver or piece of thin metal and place it on the bolt holding the pulley on while the car is running. Put one end on the bolt and one to your ear to listen for it. Works best from underneath. Otherwise, you can push on it with a wood dowel to see if the noise changes at all while it's running.

 

hmm, part used to be 34$ from the dealer??, I have replaced mine 3 times already...its a very annoying cricket noise that gets worse as the condition worsens...

 

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on finding a aftermarket tensioner pulley. I spent three trips to parts store trying to get the right one and no one carries the right part according to what there books called for. The factory pulley is recessed on the back to allow for the spring bolt to clear the pulley. They had one that was close but still wasn't recessed enough. So either buy a factory one or replace the bearing in your original one like I did. You can take a 1 1/8" socket or silver dollar and tap the old one out and tap the new bearing in or use a vice and press it in.

 

So, how did you determine what bearing to get and where did you get it? Care to share a part number, cost or anything?

 

I'll post the bearing number tomorrow after I look at the old one at home. Since it was Memorial day and no bearing shops were open, I just purchased the cheapest tensioner pulley they had and took the new bearing out and put in my old pulley. It costed me $10. Most all the tensioner pulley's they had in stock used the same sealed bearing #. I would imagine you could buy the bearing for less than $3. It's not pressed in very hard either. From what I could tell the reason they start to chatter is all the grease eventually spins out (centrifugal force) of the seal on the bearing causing it to go dry. That's the way mine look anyways. I'll post the bearing # tomorrow.

 

Tensioner Pulley bearing p/n is; NTN 6203LU, there was also a P/N on the side of the bearing NTN 6203EX4CSIS.

 

Thanks for the part #. Where did you get the bearing at though?

 

TIMKEN 203FF sealed bearing.

I understand that this is also listed as a GM clutch pilot bearing. Most of these pulleys are off the shelf parts that are interchangebale with other GM vehicles.