05 Corolla Serpentine Belt Question

[bennor]

When having the 30,000 mile service on my 05 Corolla (with around 33,000 on the OD), the dealership service guys recommended changing the serpentine belt due to cracks. They wanted $140 or so to change the belt. In reading around it appears that some cracking is normal.

I have a few questions based on the pictures below.
Are the cracks that are visible on the belt picture 1 below normal?
Should the belt be changed?
It appears it can be a DIY job, if so how hard is it for one person to do?
How does one route the belt into the tight space?
And what tools are needed or recommend?
Also with the last picture it appears the tension bolt that needs to be released is hard to get to (ie, tight fit between the wheel well and engine), any recommendations on what tool(s) to use to access the bolt?

Belt Picture 1


Belt Picture 2


Tensioner and tension bolt


Thanks.

[dorman68]

The cracks are very common at this age. My belt is still original on my car.
A very easy diy repair, a belt is about $26.00 from an aftermarket parts house, it should take about 15 minutes or less to do. A socket(not sure what size - I think somewhere between15-17mm) and rachet is all you will need.

[TrdSpeed140]

yeah, try to pick up a "goodyear gatorback" belt from advance autoparts or any store that carries the gatorbacks. imo they're the best replacement belt. the tensioner bolt can actually be accessed from above, its quite an easy job, the best thing to do, if you can't find a diagram online or get a manual showing the belt routing, would be to just take a picture of how its routed before you take the old one off. and if you forget to do that, all it takes is a little common sense and problem solving skills; the pulleys with smooth surfaces contact the smooth side of the belt and the pulleys with ridges contact the ridged side of the belt! you just have to make sure that the belt is on each pulley! hahaha, good luck!

[JasonA]

The Goodyear Gatorback is only sold at AutoZone I believe. It's supposed to be a very good belt. I have one on my Dodge Dakota. It's very quiet.

The factory belt started chirping on my Corolla after only 20k miles or so. It was a pretty cheaply-made belt, so I was happy to have it gone. You'll notice that when you remove yours, it's threaded together at a butt-joint. It doesn't look all that robust. I have a NAPA Micro-V belt on mine, just because I got it free from a local store's close-out inventory. It runs just fine. But if I were buying one, I'd get the Goodyear Gatorback. I think it's about 26 bucks from AutoZone.

It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to change the belt. Very easy.

[jeff1000]

Here is my first post at this forum after lurking for a while.

This is a page from alldata that has instructions for installing the belt on a
2005 Corolla.




.

[cny03owner]

I replaced the belt on my '03 earlier this year. First time I had attempted it. The tip about taking a photo is a good one, or you can draw a quick diagram of the routing on a piece of paper. I found that due to the tight space in the engine compartment, having a second set of hands to help was a big plus. It's not impossible to do it by yourself, but it can be frustrating. Getting the belt around the lower pulleys is the place to start, it's much easier from below than from above. That's where the extra hands help... I needed one hand to keep the tensioner slacked enough to get the belt around the rest of the pulleys.

Unless you don't have the tools, or are not at all mechanically inclined, the dealer/repair shop prices to replace the belt are too expensive, IMHO. It's a quick job, but most charge based on the book hours.

One more tip, save the old belt in the trunk, just in case the belt goes on you. The old belt may not be great, but putting it on will at least let you get the car to somewhere you can get a new one, and you likely won't get stuck with an expensive tow job and/or repair bill for someone else to get you back on the road.

[bigkat91]

Originally Posted by cny03owner

I replaced the belt on my '03 earlier this year. First time I had attempted it. The tip about taking a photo is a good one, or you can draw a quick diagram of the routing on a piece of paper. I found that due to the tight space in the engine compartment, having a second set of hands to help was a big plus. It's not impossible to do it by yourself, but it can be frustrating. Getting the belt around the lower pulleys is the place to start, it's much easier from below than from above. That's where the extra hands help... I needed one hand to keep the tensioner slacked enough to get the belt around the rest of the pulleys.

Unless you don't have the tools, or are not at all mechanically inclined, the dealer/repair shop prices to replace the belt are too expensive, IMHO. It's a quick job, but most charge based on the book hours.

One more tip, save the old belt in the trunk, just in case the belt goes on you. The old belt may not be great, but putting it on will at least let you get the car to somewhere you can get a new one, and you likely won't get stuck with an expensive tow job and/or repair bill for someone else to get you back on the road.

if you do that don't forget to put a wrench in the trunk to get the slack out of the tensioner

[bennor]

Thanks for the replies.

Edit/Updated
One thing cropped up was there appear to be two different types of Goodyear Gatorback belts, one for AC and one for a non AC engines. Autozone, when I found one that had the belt, listed the engine with AC version belt as 4060740 (6PK1880), and they charged me $33.99 for the belt.

Removed questions about how tension on the tensioner as you pull it forward. It appears one can release the tensioner device enough with a wrench to remove the belt from the alternator (easiest one to reach), release the tensioner device with the wrench, and proceed to remove and install new belt, then reapply pressure via the wrench to the tensioner device and wrangle the belt over the alternator. Haven't done it yet though as the engine was way to hot and got a few nice burns to show for it while feeling around it on how the belts were run. Also not mentioned is the black plastic engine cover should be removed to make access a little easier. You can probably do the change without it but it's removal makes things easier and quicker. The bolts that hold down the plastic engine cover appears to be 10mm.

Also Autozone now appears to have a tensioner kit with several bars and sockets you can rent for $25. I wound up purchasing the Great Neck 1/2 Inch Drive 19 mm Socket for $4.19 and the Great Neck 1/2 Inch Drive 18 Inch Breaker Bar $11.99 from them (total for both items was $17.15) instead just in case I have to do this again down the road on this or another car. Its a tight fit but the breaker bar and socket fit in the space between the engine and tire wall.

[JasonA]

Yes, the engine cover nuts are 10mm. And I agree that removing the belt over the alternator pulley is the easiest way to go. You outta be able to have that belt on and off in about 5 minutes. It's pretty quick and easy.

[bennor]

Finally got some time to put the belt on. Some comments on the process.

• Have a flash light handy if you cannot clearly see the routing of the belts in the back part of the engine.
• Be careful when removing the left hand plastic engine cover housing bolt. Its a nut, where as the right hand one is a full bolt. The right hand bolt was hard to remove and took a few minutes of time to unscrew.
• Be careful with the plastic clips (or what ever they're called) that secure the plastic engine cover to the back of the engine, as I lifted the covering off (after pulling the clips up) one popped off and disappeared down the back side of the engine. I never found it.
• Try routing the belt from the back first since that's the hardest area to reach (really tight back there).
• It can be done by one person if you route the belt around all the pulleys/wheels and leave the alternator pulley for last. You can pull down the tensioner with one hand and slip the belt over the alternator pulley with the other.
• Take some care with the AC lines as they can make putting a breaker bar or wrench onto the tensioner bolt a little tight. I found that putting the breaker bar into the tight space angling towards me as I slipped it onto the nut, I didn't hit the AC lines.
• Using a breaker bar might work better than a short wrench. The bar I used allowed to more ease of use than reaching in with a short wrench would have.

Over all it took 10 minutes to wrestle the belt in. If you have smaller hands it will probably go quicker. I wound up with some battle cuts but the job is done. And I saved myself about $100 over having the dealership do it.

[v8eaterWRX]

Bump! This should be a sticky. I fought with this stupid belt for 3hrs. Gave up, found this thread and realized what a dumbass I am. Back outside and swapped the belt in under 5 minutes.

[PhatRoyale]

Added to the sticky thread.

[bford17]

im probably late..but w/e....anyway...changing the serpentine belt is easy...all you need is a breaker bar and a 19mm socket (i believe) and then pull just put that socket on the tensioner adjuster nut and pull on it...the tensioner will loosen and you can slide the belt off...

probably the trickiest part is to make sure that you put the serpentine belt correctly...

its definitely a DIY job!

good luck!

[juicedz]

Just finished replacing the belt myself on my 2003 Toyota Corolla S. 15-20min is a pretty accurate time estimate, 19mm is correct on the socket size, and it's best to start from the bottom two pulleys, move to the rear pulley, and then work your way forward to the alternator pulley last. Cheers

[monzy44]

yeah I never read this thread and i was struggling at first with the belt...but figured out how easy it was, takes 5 minutes at most