Has anyone here had the tensioner on their engines fail? over on clubgp, people have had it happen to them after ~50k miles. Also, if this is a problem, what is a good replacement?

TIA

My father has a 98 SE and the pulley on the tensioner failed at 40,000. The bearing on the pulley was making noise so I tryed to replace just the bearing but the pulley is made of plastic so I couldn't. Some of the older models have metal pulleys where you can change the bearing which cost around $5. On his I had to get the entire tensioner assembly from dealer but I just switched the pulleys. The heater hoses run through the tensioner assembly which makes it a PITA to do. :?

You can buy just the pulley, and don't need to do the whole tensioner. Some of the aftermarket tensioner pulley/bearing assemblies at Autozone/Napa type stores are metal as opposed to the OEM plastic.

Thanks for the info, I wish I knew that back then. The place I deal with told me the pulley was not sold seperate and they didn't sell the whole assembly .I will try to locate a pulley to complete the spare tensioner assembly. Does anyone happen to know the part # or at least what brand makes it :?:

Had mine go this week, c. 130,000 mi (first time); did you replace pulley yourself? A few questions for anyone: the pulley is very close to the alternator fan blade: 1) is it supposed to be this close, and 2) how do you "reload" the tensioner? Thanks.

I have replaced both of mine in 80,000. They were cheap replace but the one for the supercharger requires removing the engine mount. It was not hard just took a little longer.
When the bearing went on the plastic supercharger tentioner it lost tention but Iwas still able to drive it home from a long trip.

Gates #38006

Cheers,