Alternator/Pwr. Steering & A/C Belts

carljwnc

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Continuing on with helpful tech write up's, here's a good easy one for y'all. 2003 Forester N/A

B27-1.jpg

Remove the screws circled in red, this will allow you to remove the plastic belt cover on the right. Metal cover is still held on by the bolt in the green circle, this is the pivot bolt for the alternator, the cover is slotted so you only need to loosen the bolt to remove the cover.

B30-1.jpg

Covers removed, now you need to release the tension on the belts, the bolt in the yellow circle pivots the alternator which is what tensions the belt. Counterclockwise and you'll be releasing tension. I had to pretty much loosen it all the way to get the belt off. The green circle shows the locknut for the tension pulley for the A/C belt space is tight and I could only get my box end wrench on it, the nut was tight enough that I had to use a breaker bar to get it loose.

B32.jpg

Showing the wrench on the nut. Also (I forgot to circle it:rolleyes:) the tension adjuster screw above and to the left. The Subaru engineers made it nice and intuitive how to release the tension, again counterclockwise will release the belt tension (screw is actually a left hand thread), you will need to release this one almost all the way too in order to remove the belt.

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YAY!!! No more belts.:)

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Alright, reason this all came about, Blubaru started making this awful squeeeeeeling noise as soon as she started up. :redface: One bit of neglected maintenance :redface:, these belt (original) have 97k miles on them. I think they should be changed every 30-50k mi.

B35.jpg

Ahaaaaa, nice fresh belts. I ran the tension back up to where I thought it should be, but don't put the covers back on yet. Important Note; tighten the A/C belt tensioner locknut before you do this. With the A/C on start the car and let it run for a minuite, let the A/C compressor cycle on and off a few times and watch the belt. When the A/C kicks on the belt will resonate and deflect. Mine was deflecting about 1/2" so I shut the car off and added more tension. The only trouble I ran into was the A/C belt jumped over one groove toward the engine, my theory is that the first time I started the car I did not tighten the tensioner locknut and the pulley had enough slop in it to allow the belt to jump, hence the note above.

Now tension them up again, running the engine has allowed the belts to strech out some. Start the car again, make sure the belts are staying in the proper grooves and the tension looks good. Shut it off, and NOW you can put the covers back on.

Results; a much smoother and quieter running Blubaru. Took me about an hour, including taking pics.

Now, go check your belts!!!
 
Nice writeup m8. I have already changed both belts. I got to learn that the bolt for the ac belt was of the reverse kind after the plastic piece at the bottom broke and I needed to order a new one.

Edit: It do raise a question tho. Why the heck did they made it out of plastic instead of steel??
 
Top write up carljwnc, well done mate. :)
This will come in very handy for when it comes time for me to do mine. :)

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
:bananatoast: I think it's important to write up even the easy ones. It's going to benefit someone at some point in time, hopefully anyway.:iconwink: I also think it makes the forum more valuable, and desirable for new (and old) members.:)
 
I couldn't agree more & as you say, we will all benefit form these write ups at some stage. :raz:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Really glad i found this & even more so that you wrote such a good, detailed thread on it! Mine squealed like a demon from hell for the first time yesterday & would only do it within the first minute or so of running, then it would stop. Where did get you end up getting your belts from?
 
:bananatoast: I think it's important to write up even the easy ones. It's going to benefit someone at some point in time, hopefully anyway.:iconwink: I also think it makes the forum more valuable, and desirable for new (and old) members.:)

Yeaaah! Really glad i found this & even more so that you wrote such a good, detailed thread on it! Mine squealed like a demon from hell for the first time yesterday & would only do it within the first minute or so of running, then it would stop. Where did get you end up getting your belts from & what are their technical names for when i pick one up?

If i put the forry in gear, then turn the wheel all the way to one side and sort of bounce it, the squealing would go right with it. The thicker belt to the left i have is an FHI belt, but the other is a gates. Im assuming the gates is newer since it's not an FHI, but never know. All work that's ever been done on it has been done at a dealership, so i was surprised to the see gates one under there.

i'm guessing the best thing is to just replace them both since i'll be under there. No sense in replacing one, i'm sure if i do that, two weeks later the other will go. It's amazing how the setup didnt change much. That almost looks identical to my '99 under the hood.
Thanks again Carl!
 
Excellent write up Carl. I just had mine down 10,000km ago but when the next time comes around I will give it a crack :biggrin: These kind of instructions are always great. Thanks

Regards
Taza
 
General servicing of Subarus is pretty straight forward. Ask for tips in advance, have some basic tools and as they say in the classics- Avva go ya mug! :)
 
Where did get you end up getting your belts from & what are their technical names for when i pick one up?

Technical names are in the thread title.:iconwink: I'm pretty sure I got them from Hodges Subaru while they were a vendor.:sad:

However we have just gotten a new vendor on board, so new that they are not even listed yet.:cool: Not 100% that they have the belts, but please check them out; SUMO Parts!!!
 
I thought so, but just wanted to make sure! Just ordered the O.E.M belts through ezsubaruparts. While their belt prices were cheaper than anyone elses, their shipping costs were higher, but still came out cheaper than me having to drive into austin to pick them up. Belts were $11.50 each, then there was $15 shipping :eek: .
Sprayed a little belt dressing on the belts this morning to quiet them down a bit when starting until the new belts come in. They only squealed for a moment and when they did, it was a ton quieter - so a nice temporary mask.

Oh and i checked out Sumoparts - as i have seen them logged in from time to time. Only saw timing belts on their website though. However i am going to be needing rear bearings, so i might be going through them!
 
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Sprayed a little belt dressing on the belts this morning to quiet them down a bit when starting until the new belts come in. They only squealed for a moment and when they did, it was a ton quieter - so a nice temporary mask.

One thing I learned in my brief foray into the automotive repair world, that belt dressing is fine to use in your case when the squealing gets to be too much, but, before you install those new belts make sure you clean it all off the pulleys. It can cause your belts to slip and will also lead to them prematurely deteriorating.
 
Got 'em changed! I probably wouldn't have bothered with it myself if it wasn't for carl's handy write up! ;)
Now i just hope it doesn't squeal anymore. The belts i took off were not cracked at all... Spose to be 98 tomorrow, so i'm sure they will get good & hot. Find out for sure then.
 
Hah! Far from it, 26 in September. :biggrin:
However the rate at which i'm finding the hair from my head end up on the bathroom counter in the morning when i dry my hair, it feels more like 40.
 
You betcha, i used some simple green to "degrease" the pulleys. What's funny about the belt dressing is that one thing it flat out says is "to stop belts from slipping", but not sure how exactly that works with a greasy product! Must have been when they created the label.

The power steering/alt. belt was a !&*^*^%$&$ to get off. I actually ended up cutting it off because i had the alternator pushed down as far as it would go, & still couldnt get it off. Weird thing was the new one went right on with no problem.. Never heard of a belt shrinking?

I tightened mine pretty good before i turned it on & neither of the belts jumped over. The a/c belt stretched a good bit, so i had to tighten it a couple times & will check it again in probably a week or so. Felt good to get under the hood myself though. Back when i owned older vehicles, i always did most of everything myself. Since owning newer vehicles, it's just got so much more complicated.
 
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