studawg66

Need some opinions/help here:
About 2 years ago I did the timing belt / water pump replacement and while I had everything apart I made sure to replace both idler pulleys as well and I used quality factory parts, not cheapos. About a week ago when we had our first cool morning, I noticed a little bit of a whine from the engine bay that sounded like a faint bearing whine, not really belt squeal. After going down the road for a few minutes, it was back to its quiet operation. I thought perhaps something in the fan clutch was just making more noise than usual when really cold, but was also worried that is sounded like a bearing in that timing belt area. This morning as I pulled into the office parking lot (so engine is plenty warm from 30 min commute) I heard a more pronounced growling type of noise that was kind of intermittent and you could hear the engine RPMs drop a bit, almost like the AC clutch was cycling (but it was off). The sound seems to be coming from very near where that upper idler pulley, the #2 pulley with the water inlet, is located. But after thinking about it a bit, it could also be the fan pulley bearing. As soon as I get the chance, I plan to pull the AC/PS/Alt belts and see if the noise goes away, thinking that it could help me rule out one of the timing belt pulley bearings (I sure hope!).
But here are my questions, assuming it is the fan pulley:
1. Has anyone ever replaced the fan pulley bracket assembly WITHOUT removing the water outlet from the #2 idler pulley and pulling the whole timing cover off? I hate to break all that down if there is a way to just flex that timing cover enough to replace the fan pulley bracket.
2. Similarly, can this be removed without removing the radiator?

I know the best way is to probably just go ahead and break all this down per the FSM timing belt section, but I'm hoping someone has made this full day job (if you count the time for the water outlet gasket material to set) into a 2 hour replacement. Any ideas?

studawg66

I should also have asked:
If I do end up replacing the fan pulley bracket, is this Aisin part a good option? Not a terrible price.
https://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts...-05238079.html
Heard horror stories of using cheap aftermarket parts, so looking for the best option to purchase.

superex87

1. You will have to remove the water outlet neck no matter what. Only way around that would be to cut up the timing cover.....I do not recommend that.
2. The radiator can probably stay but it will making working on it a lot harder. I would just bit the bullet and remove the radiator.
3. That bracket will work just fine.

studawg66

Appreciate that. Kind of figured. Now that I see the hydraulic tensioner is attached to it, there really is no good way around it.

As for my diagnosis, the drive home diagnosed it for me. About 5 minutes into my 40 minute commute, the fan pulley seized up and smoked all three belts. I pulled over, cut them off, and drove it home without alt, PS, or AC. Waiting on part to arrive Thursday.

One bright spot...for a couple of months I had been seeing intermittent low idle speed of like 400 RPM, and I think it was all due to this bearing starting to lock up. It idles much smoother now with nothing on the fan pulley. Haha.

superex87

Damn well that's one way to diagnose a problem lol. At least you know what it is. Its really not hard to replace it.

studawg66

Yeah, that's what I thought. Told my wife that at least I didn't have to take off one belt at a time to figure out where it was coming from. LOL
Part came in last night, so I'll be replacing it today.
It is kind of annoying that the bearing isn't replaceable and that the timing belt tensioner is connected to it. More annoying is that I have to break that seal on the water inlet to pull the timing cover and then wait for it to dry when I button it up. But I'll get over it. Gripe session over.

scope103

On mine, the bearing itself didn't fail, but the aluminum into which it was mounted did. So it allowed the bearing to tip forward, causing the fan to hit the radiator.

Given that the bearing is pressed into an aluminum casting, I'm guessing that replacing the bearing is just asking for trouble. It doesn't cost much more to get the whole deal.

Consider taking a few pictures of your repair.

studawg66

Makes sense with it being aluminum. Just hate the bracket is down inside an area that requires so much effort to dig into.
I got it all back together yesterday and am just waiting on the RTV to cure before starting it. I took a picture or two, but they are basically the same pics as the timing belt job, so I'm not sure they will be all that beneficial. I will post later though, because I did have to take a couple of precautions with the belt since I was only taking off the top timing cover. No need to remove the crank pulley and bottom cover for this job, but that means you have to be careful with not letting the belt slip when you take off the tensioner, because if it slips now you do have to take off all that to get it back on and that job just got a whole lot worse.
So I used some clamps to hold the belt in place to the cam sprockets (as shown in other people's posts) and some zip ties to keep tension on the left side before I removed the hydraulic tensioner. Picture will make more sense when I get a chance to post it.
The hydraulic tensioner took some pretty serious convincing to get it compressed enough for an allen key to fit in the slot, but it did eventually and all is well.
Biggest problem I had with the whole job was putting the PS belt back in place. On this vehicle, there is no other tensioner, and there isn't a whole lot of movement of the pump to adjust tension. Plus, one of the AC lines is next to the pump, making it more difficult to push it further to the left to loosen it for belt installation. But after some thinking and some cursing I finally got it wrestled on there.