The Yaris sucks.

[SAV912]

30K serp belt swaps, ROFL. If you listen to that rubbish, you DESERVE to get hosed for every penny they'll take you for. That's just stupid.

I'm at 73K on mine, and there was no record it was changed by the previous owner. I've looked at it twice in 50K miles and it's still tight as a virgin. Me thinks constantly messing with the bolts in that area has done something negative to your tensioner.

-C

[firemachine69]

Originally Posted by SAV912

30K serp belt swaps, ROFL. If you listen to that rubbish, you DESERVE to get hosed for every penny they'll take you for. That's just stupid.

I'm at 73K on mine, and there was no record it was changed by the previous owner. I've looked at it twice in 50K miles and it's still tight as a virgin. Me thinks constantly messing with the bolts in that area has done something negative to your tensioner.

-C

Ok, let me set things straight here.


The bolts were NEVER touched previously. I do all my own maintenance. I simply check for major cracks and tension in my belt, neither of which indicated an upcoming problem. In other words, my belt looked "mint" (no kidding, it didn't even have 35K last time I checked). However, when I blew my belt this past weekend, I had neither the tools nor the breaker bar to add tension to the new belt (that my friend so kindly picked up), so I had to get the yaris towed to a shop (while far out of town) for them to replace the belt. Part of the other reasoning to go to the out-of-town shop was that belts usually don't give in so young in their "lives", thus the possibility of some other major failure (coolant pump, etc.) It turns out, none of the pulley'ed items seemed to be "dead".


Now upon my return home, the belt started squealing on cranking over the engine. So I brought it to my local Toyota dealership to bitch and moan that I thought the alternator was on its way out (my VIN was right in line with the batch of Yaris's that had a bad batch of alternators). This was not the case, they claimed my belt was installed too loose, or had gotten so loose it needed tightening. Fine by me, they did it for no charge, and the squealing disappeared. At which point, they recommended frequent belt changes, and retensioning of the belt around every oil change (of which I've never heard of).

Until this morning on the first initial cranking of the day I hadn't heard a squeal, but I haven't heard it since.


Looking at the remains of the blown belt, you'd be damn hard-pressed to find an area that could even remotely lead on to imminent failure.