2013~2016 Belt Tensioner - Shouldn't this be a warranty item?

Well the mechanic was able to get the water pump belt on no problem using a lift! Cost me $108 for labor, but that's OK as it's done now.

My CX-5 has 81,412 miles on as of right now. I purchased it in August 2013 when it was still in transit from the Port of Entry. Delivered with less than 3 miles on the odometer.

These are the https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned) that I have and used. Used the 17mm from below for the tension release and the 12mm from below to break loose the bottom bolt. Standard 12mm box/open combo wrench from the top for removing the nut and further loosening of the bottom bolt. I used a standard 21mm socket and socket wrench to turn the crank pulley when I needed to.

Total DIY (mostly) cost:
Rock Auto with 5% discount code - tensioner, serpentine belt and water pump belt - $101.28 incl. tax
Mechanic's labor to install water pump belt (he's good, but not cheap!) - $107.98
Grand total: $209.26
 
minnesotaart said:
Well the mechanic was able to get the water pump belt on no problem using a lift! Cost me $108 for labor, but that's OK as it's done now.

My CX-5 has 81,412 miles on as of right now. I purchased it in August 2013 when it was still in transit from the Port of Entry. Delivered with less than 3 miles on the odometer.

These are the https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned) that I have and used. Used the 17mm from below for the tension release and the 12mm from below to break loose the bottom bolt. Standard 12mm box/open combo wrench from the top for removing the nut and further loosening of the bottom bolt. I used a standard 21mm socket and socket wrench to turn the crank pulley when I needed to.

Total DIY (mostly) cost:
Rock Auto with 5% discount code - tensioner, serpentine belt and water pump belt - $101.28 incl. tax
Mechanic's labor to install water pump belt (he's good, but not cheap!) - $107.98
Grand total: $209.26
Click to expand...

So after going through all of the information that you've provided, it seems like the only three methods of approaching this in the 2.5l CX-5 would be:
  1. Extra Long Offset/Box End Wrench: For removal/installation. Cheapest cost that is only good for installation/removal but no torqueing.
  2. Torque wrench/Ratchet with 2-3 extensions + a flare nut crows foot: For torqueing the nut/bolt to specs. This seems to be the best balance for price/maneuverability.
  3. Spigot ended fittings with flare/box end: The head is pretty big but very maneuverable as well and has the ability to torque. Only issue is that it's very expensive.
A crow foot can reach in extremely tight spaces and the extension would be the only way to maneuver in those tight spots. The only small issue would be calculating the torque specs but this shouldn't be a problem with the formulas/calculators provided. I provided a link with the formula below if anyone is planning to use this method:

Torque Wrench Extension Calculator
EXTENSIONS CALCULATOR
Calculator for: Torque Wrench Length, Extension Length, Torque Applied or Torque Wrench Setting

1602527330272.png


Crow Foot:
1602527179666.png

Spigot End:
1602527147969.png
 
Last edited:
minnesotaart said:
Total DIY (mostly) cost:
Rock Auto with 5% discount code - tensioner, serpentine belt and water pump belt - $101.28 incl. tax
Mechanic's labor to install water pump belt (he's good, but not cheap!) - $107.98
Grand total: $209.26
Click to expand...

The tensioner alone being changed would cost $450 at the dealership.

Armed with your knowledge. On a scale of 1-10. Oh and to add some pressure in the situation. If we were surrounded by zombies 1 mile away walking 1 mile per hour. You had 1 hour to change the damn tensioner. First, on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it. Second, can you change it in 1 hour time? Third, and the most important question in this life/death situation. What drink/beer do I haul in the back of the CX-5?
 
CX-5um said:
The tensioner alone being changed would cost $450 at the dealership.

Armed with your knowledge. On a scale of 1-10. Oh and to add some pressure in the situation. If we were surrounded by zombies 1 mile away walking 1 mile per hour. You had 1 hour to change the damn tensioner. First, on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it. Second, can you change it in 1 hour time? Third, and the most important question in this life/death situation. What drink/beer do I haul in the back of the CX-5?
Click to expand...
Haha!

Now that there's all this info out there, and assuming that changing your oil and filter is a 1 (easy), then I guess I would rate changing the tensioner at a 5. How fast you do it really depends on how fast you can get up and down off the floor since you'll constantly be switching position between top and bottom. Perhaps a weeks worth of burpees will help you prepare for that. You should be able to do it in an hour no sweat, but zombies on the march probably could hasten your work somewhat. As for the kind drink/beer to get? Get some of this hard cider and leave it at your neighbor's house to buy yourself some extra time!
 
minnesotaart said:
Well the mechanic was able to get the water pump belt on no problem using a lift!
Click to expand...
Not sure why using a lift would make it easier to put the stretch belt on as the space is still tight. I’ll find out when it’s time to replace the water pump belt. Were you watching the mechanic putting on the water pump belt? Did he just use his “fingers” to push the stretch belt into the pulley? Right now my plan is to replace only the leaky belt tensioner at 42.5K miles. Not going to worry about water pump belt yet.
 
yrwei52 said:
Not sure why using a lift would make it easier to put the stretch belt on as the space is still tight. I’ll find out when it’s time to replace the water pump belt. Were you watching the mechanic putting on the water pump belt? Did he just use his “fingers” to push the stretch belt into the pulley? Right now my plan is to replace only the leaky belt tensioner at 42.5K miles. Not going to worry about water pump belt yet.
Click to expand...

No I did not watch the mechanic so I don't know how he did it, just glad he did it!

To understand why you need a lift to accomplish this task, try doing this little exercise. Seriously, try it to see what I mean. Lay on your back and put both hands over your head, up about a foot or so, as if you were working on the vehicle. The water pump pulley is on your right and the crank pulley is pretty much directly overhead. Now take you right hand and raise it with your fingers extended as if you were pushing up on the water pump belt and its pulley with plenty of force to keep the belt in the groove. Bear in mind that you are exerting this force while the back of your hand is facing the engine, not your palm, and you are trying to push it toward the engine. Now simultaneously take your left hand and pretend you are pulling down on the ratchet attached to the crank pulley right over your face to rotate the pulley. Bear in mind here that if the ratchet slips as you pull down against the engine compression it lands squarely on your face (ouch! Ask me how I know.). The contortions of this approach are horrible to say the least. You might be able to do it if you positioned your body completely under the vehicle so that your head and shoulders are the only thing in the wheel well and the hand functions were reversed, but I wasn't going to try that even with jack stands (call me a coward).

Now imagine you that have the vehicle up on a lift at the right height right in front of you. For this exercise, stand straight up with your hands comfortably over your head, maybe 2 feet or so this time so that your elbows are straighter than in the other exercise. Imagine your right hand is pulling down on the crank ratchet and your left hand, palm facing the engine, is now guiding the belt onto the pulley where you can use your fingers and your thumb to help. Much, much better body mechanics, no? You can easily see how you can apply much more force with both hands in this situation and that "stretch" water pump belt needs a lot of force. With a lift it's even possible to have a helper in there with you. So even though the clearance is exactly the same in both situations, your ability to apply the mechanical force needed is vastly different between the 2 approaches.

Your plan to only replace the tensioner and the belt is a good one. Wait for the other belt to get totally worn out and then find a lift (or a mechanic)!
 
minnesotaart said:
No I did not watch the mechanic so I don't know how he did it, just glad he did it!

To understand why you need a lift to accomplish this task, try doing this little exercise. Seriously, try it to see what I mean. Lay on your back and put both hands over your head, up about a foot or so, as if you were working on the vehicle. The water pump pulley is on your right and the crank pulley is pretty much directly overhead. Now take you right hand and raise it with your fingers extended as if you were pushing up on the water pump belt and its pulley with plenty of force to keep the belt in the groove. Bear in mind that you are exerting this force while the back of your hand is facing the engine, not your palm, and you are trying to push it toward the engine. Now simultaneously take your left hand and pretend you are pulling down on the ratchet attached to the crank pulley right over your face to rotate the pulley. Bear in mind here that if the ratchet slips as you pull down against the engine compression it lands squarely on your face (ouch! Ask me how I know.). The contortions of this approach are horrible to say the least. You might be able to do it if you positioned your body completely under the vehicle so that your head and shoulders are the only thing in the wheel well and the hand functions were reversed, but I wasn't going to try that even with jack stands (call me a coward).

Now imagine you that have the vehicle up on a lift at the right height right in front of you. For this exercise, stand straight up with your hands comfortably over your head, maybe 2 feet or so this time so that your elbows are straighter than in the other exercise. Imagine your right hand is pulling down on the crank ratchet and your left hand, palm facing the engine, is now guiding the belt onto the pulley where you can use your fingers and your thumb to help. Much, much better body mechanics, no? You can easily see how you can apply much more force with both hands in this situation and that "stretch" water pump belt needs a lot of force. With a lift it's even possible to have a helper in there with you. So even though the clearance is exactly the same in both situations, your ability to apply the mechanical force needed is vastly different between the 2 approaches.

Your plan to only replace the tensioner and the belt is a good one. Wait for the other belt to get totally worn out and then find a lift (or a mechanic)!
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the only other alternative to getting a lift is having a jack/jack stand that supports up to 10-12 tons since that would provide the maximum height allowed and the most room to work.
 
Digbicks1234 said:
Sounds to me like the only other alternative to getting a lift is having a jack/jack stand that supports up to 10-12 tons since that would provide the maximum height allowed and the most room to work.
Click to expand...
As for the serpentine belt, I found this video in which the guy uses a heavy bar to keep the tension off the belt to remove and replace it:
 
minnesotaart said:
No I did not watch the mechanic so I don't know how he did it, just glad he did it!

To understand why you need a lift to accomplish this task, try doing this little exercise. Seriously, try it to see what I mean. Lay on your back and put both hands over your head, up about a foot or so, as if you were working on the vehicle. The water pump pulley is on your right and the crank pulley is pretty much directly overhead. Now take you right hand and raise it with your fingers extended as if you were pushing up on the water pump belt and its pulley with plenty of force to keep the belt in the groove. Bear in mind that you are exerting this force while the back of your hand is facing the engine, not your palm, and you are trying to push it toward the engine. Now simultaneously take your left hand and pretend you are pulling down on the ratchet attached to the crank pulley right over your face to rotate the pulley. Bear in mind here that if the ratchet slips as you pull down against the engine compression it lands squarely on your face (ouch! Ask me how I know.). The contortions of this approach are horrible to say the least. You might be able to do it if you positioned your body completely under the vehicle so that your head and shoulders are the only thing in the wheel well and the hand functions were reversed, but I wasn't going to try that even with jack stands (call me a coward).

Now imagine you that have the vehicle up on a lift at the right height right in front of you. For this exercise, stand straight up with your hands comfortably over your head, maybe 2 feet or so this time so that your elbows are straighter than in the other exercise. Imagine your right hand is pulling down on the crank ratchet and your left hand, palm facing the engine, is now guiding the belt onto the pulley where you can use your fingers and your thumb to help. Much, much better body mechanics, no? You can easily see how you can apply much more force with both hands in this situation and that "stretch" water pump belt needs a lot of force. With a lift it's even possible to have a helper in there with you. So even though the clearance is exactly the same in both situations, your ability to apply the mechanical force needed is vastly different between the 2 approaches.

Your plan to only replace the tensioner and the belt is a good one. Wait for the other belt to get totally worn out and then find a lift (or a mechanic)!
Click to expand...
I understand. It has to be done facing the pulleys, not laying on one's back with the pulleys above.
 
yrwei52 said:
Not sure why using a lift would make it easier to put the stretch belt on as the space is still tight. I’ll find out when it’s time to replace the water pump belt. Were you watching the mechanic putting on the water pump belt? Did he just use his “fingers” to push the stretch belt into the pulley? Right now my plan is to replace only the leaky belt tensioner at 42.5K miles. Not going to worry about water pump belt yet.
Click to expand...

Minnesotaart is right in a way but what I did was use a creeper so that I was on my back while putting water pump belt on. What sucked was I kept rolling away. I forgot what I did to keep the creeper in place. Nonetheless a lift is easier but that was my workaround.
 
If we think about this problem long enough, maybe we can think of a mechanical solution. There are no holes in the water pump pulley so zip ties are out. It would be nice if we could attach something between the belt and water pump pulley and then just turn the crank with a wrench and the belt is forced into place.
 
MyFirstMazda said:
If we think about this problem long enough, maybe we can think of a mechanical solution. There are no holes in the water pump pulley so zip ties are out. It would be nice if we could attach something between the belt and water pump pulley and then just turn the crank with a wrench and the belt is forced into place.
Click to expand...
Actually there ARE holes in the water pump pulley, at least in mine. I tried the thickest zip tie I had and it still broke (tried 3 times). Something that I saw online during this process said that you need a 3/8" wide zip tie to do it. That's pretty darn big, almost handcuff-sized big!

There are belt fitting tools out there like these and perhaps I should have tried to get hold of them before I started the process. Hindsight...
 
minnesotaart said:
Actually there ARE holes in the water pump pulley, at least in mine. I tried the thickest zip tie I had and it still broke (tried 3 times). Something that I saw online during this process said that you need a 3/8" wide zip tie to do it. That's pretty darn big, almost handcuff-sized big!

There are belt fitting tools out there like these and perhaps I should have tried to get hold of them before I started the process. Hindsight...
Click to expand...

I'm actually glad you brought that up. I was thinking of using my bike tire levers since the process of removing/installing a new tire onto a bike rim is the exact same process pretty much.

1602685476261.png
 
minnesotaart said:
....
There are belt fitting tools out there like these and perhaps I should have tried to get hold of them before I started the process. Hindsight...
Click to expand...

They don't make it easy to find / buy that thing

www.lasertools.co.uk

Laser Tools 7522 Stretchy Belt Removal & Fitting Tool

Laser Tools 7522 Ideal for fitting stretchy belts to a wide range of vehicles.
www.lasertools.co.uk www.lasertools.co.uk
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

good thing there are alternatives:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
 
CX5_Driver said:
They don't make it easy to find / buy that thing

www.lasertools.co.uk

Laser Tools 7522 Stretchy Belt Removal & Fitting Tool

Laser Tools 7522 Ideal for fitting stretchy belts to a wide range of vehicles.
www.lasertools.co.uk www.lasertools.co.uk
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

good thing there are alternatives:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
Click to expand...

Just went through some of the reviews on those plastic ones. Seems like most of the people were dissatisfied with the plastic material used as it broke too fast.

There's a Lisle one that's made out of metal.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
 
Not sure about you guys, but I think I'm most likely going to be purchasing the Lisle one since it has a magnet and the material definitely seems to be good for the price. If you buy it from O'reillys, they have a lifetime warranty but then again this tool will only be used once in a blue moon and it costs $6 more than Amazon.

Combination Removal And Installation Tool For Most Stretch Belt Applications Found On Many Accessory Drive Systems; Unique magnetic faces hold the tool in place on the pulley. Helps prevent damage to belt or pulley during removal or installation. Compact, one-piece tool can be used on the front or back side of the pulley.
Click to expand...
 
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