Alternator Belt!

Mikeguy2002 said:

Follow up... after getting the two outer belts off, loosen the alternator bolts, and then turn the tensioner screw similar to the other two belts, except it is part of the alternator mount

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many vehicles do this. just be glad you arent doing it on a 1st or 2nd gen amzda 3 as they used whats called a stretch belt for the ac compressor and you had to cut the old one off to change the main belt (the stretch belt went crank pulley to a/c compressor and thats it) everything else was on the main drive,well except power steering as it was an electric pump. to then put a new stretch belt on you had to put the main one on first hen fight through the middle of it to loosen the compressor mounting bolts and move the compressor slightly towards the crank being careful as the lines that attached to the compressor were steel and didnt flex much so too much and you break the rubber parts further up. that was more than a bitch trying to do that through the fender well and under the car on jacks and jack stands on my 08 3, when i got an 11 i just paid someone to do it as it was too much of a hassle. that 11 3 started having issues though (they were still using ford automatics and i couldnt find a manual one which is what i really wanted) so the tranny;s were pos's and burned the fluid fast mine started acting up so itraded it in before it was noticeable to someone that didnt drive it every day and got 75% of what i had paid for it the year and 18k miles earlier just trading it in to a car dealer on the x which other than the leaking rear axle seal problem that cost $1500 at Nissan to fix (said it needed whole new axles that came with bearing assemblies and seals already pressed on and a diff fluid service) but the dealer and nissan corporate both told me the seals were an updated part number and sent me a tsb to show they knew the issue and had a remedy which was whole new axle and bearing assemblies with a revised seal taht did have a different part number so im confident it wont happen again, but the forum seems to think its the diff vent clogging that causes this, sure enough mine was stuck closed so i got another for $11 from the dealer and all you need is a 14mm deep socket and wrench and 2 minutes to crawl under to change dont even need a jack. i plan to do this annually to prevent future vent issues