I have had a problem for a while now with my belt squeeking. at first i thought it was the belt so i replaced it. the squeeking still continued so i came to the conclusion that it was the belt tensioner considering it only happened when i hit 2500rpm or above, when i do hard launches or put it in 4 wheel drive. i assume when ever the engine is under load it slips.

I went into auto zone, and as soon as i told the guy what i was looking for, he immediately asked if it was squeeking. he also said he put one on his buddies explorer and they tend to go bad after 60-80,000 miles. my truck is at around 57,750 miles.

is he right?

 

mine went bad......started to heavily squeel while driving, I continued, and the pulley went out, broke my brand new belt, and was 5 hours late to work.

 

about how many miles did u have on ur engine when it broke?

 

they go bad more than you would think, i change them on the cop cars (crown vics) at work all the time for squeeking, and a lot of times the place where the rotating part meets the bolted part comes a little loose and rubs on the front cover, making a very unusual sound.

 

somewhere around 65k ish??

 

so he was probably right. and about how long will it take to replace? it looks rather simple but i have never replaced one on a 4.0. it looks kinda tight and i dont know if u have to have a tensioner tool.

 

two minutes?

it aint that bad...i think it's a 13mm socket....all it is is one bolt that bolts to the block, there's an alignment stud/pin on the tensioner that locates it in the right position, then the bolt.

The biggest pain for me was getting the damn belt on with all the ac hoses in the way of the racket/breaker bar, and getting enough slack to get it on the pulley.

I think i spent a whole 10 minutes fixing it.??

 

should be either a 3/8 or 1/2 inch square drive(use a ratchet) to take the belt off, and should be a 10mm socket or wrench to take the tensioner off the engine

EDIT: or a 13 like wannabe said, i know its a 10 on the CV's but not hard at all

 

3/8 square drive for the belt removal/install.

 

i know the tensioner takes a 3/8ths drive to put a belt on and i made a pretty kool tool to help get some more leverage because my breaker bar wouldnt fit cause of the fan. made it from a mop handle.

 

i just replaced the tensioner on my 04 3.0 with 99,000 miles. I'm surprised it lasted so long. The mounting tab that goes in the bracket was broke off somehow. My belt was squealing and driving me crazy for the longest time. Put a new tensioner from autozone. Only took 10 minutes. No more squeak even with the 1 year old belt. The new tensioner is def. alot more tensioned and well worth $60. Mine just takes a 15mm to remove the belt.