This weekend I replaced the ancillary drive belt on my 2008 3.2 I6 since the mileage was close to 105,000 miles. The job ended up being a bit more involved than I had expected and i wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Before taking on the project I did a bit of research to see if I was up to the job, or if any special tools were required. I have a copy of a manual which is essentially a PDF of the Topix website for the vehicle, and everything look pretty straight forward. The basic first steps were:

1. Remove battery and battery tray.
2. Remove air filter housing.
3. Remove belt tension.
4. Remove AC compressor and move to the side.

This is where it got interesting. The next steps according to the manual were to remove the power steering pump support bracket and then remove the belt. However, at this point I realized I couldn't get the belt out without actually removing the power steering pump. Since the belt replacement chapter made no mention of actually removing the power steering pump I was a bit concerned that this was actually required, but I could not figure out a way to remove the belt with the pump still in place.

Left with little choice, I removed the pump mounting bolts but not the hoses and was able to get enough clearance to get the belt out. Removing the power steering pump also requires removing two TORX screws (#25) which attach the power steering pump pulley to the waterpump drive. This was probably the most fiddly job of the whole operation.

Once the belt was in, everything seemed to go back together OK. I took the opportunity to change out the belt idler pulley and tensioner pulley at the same time.

So has anyone else done this, and can they comment as to whether or not the power steering pump actually needs to be removed?

Thanks in advance.

 

I haven't ever tried to replace it without separating the ps pump and water pump assemblies, although I guess if the lines and bracket were removed, you might be able to snake the belt out, but I think it'd be more work than just pulling the pump.

One thing to note on this, there is a special alignment too to properly set up the compressor. The tool isn't necessarily needed, but the compressor can be mounted in a way that it causes the belt to not run true, and care needs to be taken to ensure it lines up right.

 

Thanks very much for confirming that. I'd have felt a bit of a Muppet if I'd pulled the PS pump unnecessarily. I did see that an alignment tool was needed but I thought that was only if the AC compressor bracket needed to come out. Since I didn't pull it, and the compressor used dowel pins for location accuracy I figured I'd be OK. Time will tell.

One final thing, do you remove the power steering hoses or just push the pump out the way with the hoses still attached?

Thanks again.

 

Similar experience tonight. Quite an involved process, many of the bolts were hard to get to, and needed all sizes of tools, and it was still a PITA.

The manual I was using (downloaded from topix) did say to remove the PS pump. After I removed the bolts, the pump was loose but seemed to be still held in place by something springy. As I wiggled to try to get the belt off, it popped loose from the water pump drive and I realized there is a spring in that interface. The manual had this note:

NOTE: Note the orientation of the coolant pump
drive for installation.

Inspecting it, it looks like the water pump has several pawls which presumably are engaged by the spring attached to the PS pulley. But there was no way to note the orientation before I pulled it apart.

When I put it back, I just lined up the spring to engage one of the pawls. It seems to run fine on a road test.

I did not see or remove the Torx screws mentioned above by TXFireblade. The manual did not mention or depict any Torx screws.

Anyone know if I screwed it up? I'm not sure if the drive spring was so supposed to be pre-tensioned?

Thanks

 

Update. Found a good picture of the coupler online. Looks like the spring fits into a hole on the coolant pump drive plate.

So I took it all apart again (went a lot faster in daylight with experience!), but the coupler was no longer loose the way I left it??? It felt connected by the spring, with some springy play. Since that was how it was when I originally took it apart, I stopped there and put it all back together. Since it runs fine and makes no noise I think I'm good. My local British mechanic agrees, he said it would make noise and vibrate if it wasn't in right.

Looks like it's designed to re-engage the spring when it spins. Either that or I got real lucky. I'd suggest for anyone else that you put the spring back in it's hole just to be safe. Or remove the torx screws from the pulley so you don't split the coupler itself. I didn't try that, don't know how hard it might be.

Image is at 4:00 in this video. You can see where the end of the spring bends 90* and fits in the hole. If you pull the PS pump off, that end will pop out of the hole. The plastic ring and spring stay attached to the PS pulley. You can freely rotate both PS pump and coolant pump to line it up once the belt's off. Looking at this image, I don't think there's any way for the spring to be pre-loaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yarzp8qfTL0&feature=youtu.be&t=242

 

Merlin,

The video is helpful, thanks for posting it.

I replaced my belt, tensioner and idler about 2 months ago

Note: I removed the two small Torx bolts at the power steering pulley, if you don't then the bracket the the spring is attached to stays with the power steering pump and getting the spring back into position is very difficult. Remove the two small Torx bolts and its trivial.

This link has some picture of the fun involved.

Freel2.com - View topic - 3.2 Serpentine Belt Replacement


I agree with your assessment that the AC compressor alignment is not needed unless you move the bracket under it (I marker mine with a sharpie to make sure that it went back to the same place)

Removing and replacing the tensioner was interesting (from memory it had to be rotated in a non intuitive way to set it free)

Thanks for sharing

Paul