Bad serpentine belt on 03 XRS NEED HELP

[JustSomeGuy]

I bought my Matrix late in 2002. It was possibly the first XRS in my area. The dealer ordered it from the factory for me. The car drove great until 2004 when the serpentine belt developed a very loud squeal. It stated at just low RPMs (around 1000) but eventually the squeal was constant.

I took the car to a different dealership than the one I had bought the car from. That turned out to be a mistake because they are complete idiots. First they told me they didn't have the part to fix it, then they had miraculously found the part. About two months after this dealership "fixing" the problem the squeak came back.

This time I took the car to the dealership I had bought it from. I found out that the first dealership had misthreaded a bolt on the belt tensioner when they put it back on. So the 2nd dealership had to buy a tool to realign the threads. The squeak was gone until a month ago.

The squeak came back about a month ago and I took it back to the second dealer (the one I had bought from). I had opened the hood and watched the engine while it was running. There was a somewhat noticeable side to side movement from the belt. They had to order a part but said the car would be ok to drive until the part came in.

Now that squeak has turned into a loud grinding sound. It's not at all RPMs, but it will do it if it's under 2000. I watched the enigine again while it was parked and running. The belt is moving side to side alot more and I think I can see some wobble in one of the pulleys.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem. If so how was it resolved?

[Nad1370]

Why are you jumping from one dealership to another?

Obviously the problem got worse when you found out the bolt was threaded in crooked.
You should go back to that dealership who did this work and have them fix it under warranty since they f*cked it up the first place.

[JustSomeGuy]

Nad,

I'm jumping around because I don't trust the first dealership at all. I gave them first shot at selling me the car and they wouldn't have anything to do with me. I practically walked in there with a briefcase full of money and they refused to order me a car. I started going to them for service because I changed jobs and they were closer.

But it was obvious from the beginning that they were incompetent. Looking back I should have seen the warning signs and taken it to the dealer I had bought from the first time it squeaked. EVERY time I took it in for service I had to tell them every thing that the service should include. At the dealer I bought from I was able to just tell them "do the 5000 mile service" and they DID it. Other people that have gone to that dealer have had oil smeared across thier car and oil stains on the seats.

I took it to the dealer I bought from today for the grinding sound. This morning when I was driving to work the grinding stopped after a loud bang from the engine. A coworker was looking at my enigne and noticed that one of the tensioner bolts was out an inch away from the tensioner. So apparently the bolt that the 1st dealership had stripped and the 2nd dealership had used a helicoil (sp?) to fix has worked it's way loose. One of the heads of the service department told me today that they will probably have to order a new short block (bottom block of the engine below the heads).

[Nad1370]

That's great to hear that they will fix it for you for no charge.

Nowadays it's really hard to find a dealer you can trust and doesn't give you the run around.

[wantin150]

Just my .02 but if there is a wobble, that's not caused by the bolt issue, there may be something wrong with the harmonic balancer. I hope the new block fixers your problem though.

[05TuRDTACO]

How many miles are on your car? The belts on the corollas, celicas, and matrixs were out really fast, usually around 30k miles. And they dont have to take a bolt out of the tensioner to change the belt. Thier is a plate that the tensioner bolts to, but on the plate their is basically a nut built in where you can take a 19mm socket and a breaker bar and pull the bar towards you, and it will take tension off the belt. They could of broken the nut portion of the tensioner plate, ive seen that happen before. But i really think both dealerships are just taking you fo the run around. And id hope you wouldnt need a short block, because if both dealerships cant fix a belt issue, why would you trust them with tearing down and putting an engine together for you?

[Turbolovin84]

yo man, first of all tell the 1st dealership that looked at ur squeak problem and "attempted" to fix it, that had threaded the bolt wrong, that u took it to another toyota dealership and they found whatever part is damaged, and demand that they fix ur shit back to factory specs. and when they do, tell them to go FCUK themselves
(a squeaking belt from what i've seen at 4+yrs of Lexus/toyota experience is just a belt issue, ur serpentine belt is roughly a 25min job pull the 19mm nut towards u slip old on out, slip new one on the hardest part is trying to remember the routing of the belt.)

[oddball_1]

I have a 2003 matrix xrs with a belt squeel. I replaced the belt just two months ago. The squeel came back and the dealer said not much can be done. They said to put lube on the belt once in awhile. The old belt looked glazed is the reason I had it changed and at first it was ok, now the new belt is doing the same thing.