How to replce the belts

[Rotus]

Hi all,

Just thought I would share this with you guys. I have over 70k on my car.

I threw a belt the other day and it caused the other belt to come off. I ended up having to replce both belts. I did run into one problem that I haven't had on any other cars, I broke the bolt that adjusts the alternator and the belt that drives it.

There are two belts, both are about $40 at the dealer. I would buy OE as other belts could be lower quality. One belt drives the alt and the water pump. The other belt drives a/c and p/s. If the first belt goes, you will get the battery light on your dash. The other belt will not throw a light. If you throw the first belt, it is crucial that you pull over as soon as you can as you will start to overheat quickly.

Replacing the belts is fairly starightforward, except that you must loosen the bolt that the adjustment bolt screws into. The first belt has the adjustment on the alternator, the second is on the p/s pump. The alternator has a hinge bolt that is accessable from underneath the car. This bolt must be loosened in order to rotate the alternator so that you can get the new belt on. The hinge bolt on the p/s pump is not as tight and you can loosen the adjustment bolt (after you have loosened the bolt that holds the block that the adjuster screw into).

The sequence is to loosen the bolt that holds the block, then loosen the hinge bolt (on the alternator) then loosen the adjuster bolt.

If you do not loosen the bolt that holds the little block on there, you WILL break the adjuster bolt as the little block will not change it's angle relative to everything else as you loosen the adjuster bolt. Believe me, I did it and it's a bugger to fix.

I hope this helps.

 

[PaulMP3]

i think falkfire just had his belt fall off also.

 

[falkofire]

falkOfire...but anywayz...yeah..this board helped me alot...this thread is jst a day old

 

[Rotus]

Yeah, sorry guys. My belts just skipped out last night. I replaced them with the help of my friend Ed. He's a mazda guy from way back.

 

[xelderx]

Just thought I would share this with you guys. I have over 70k on my car.

Man we must be the only two guys with over 70,000 on the Pro5. I just hit the 78,000 mark. I just had to replace my belts as well. The outer belt was looking very worn and was about to break. For anyone else...replace your belts before 70,000 just to be safe. After that its a gamble. Your supposed to replace the timing belt at 60,000 but I didn't have enough money to do it at the time. I hope that thing doesn't go. I'm saving up to replace it next.

 

[Rotus]

Actually, the book said to inspect the TB at 60k, but really have to replace it by 90k. I had a little time to read the maintenance scedule while I was waiting for my buddy to get a bolt from the store...

 

[MazdaProbeGT]

As for the timing belt... I had a probe (V6 mazda KL03) with 120K miles and I never replaced that belt. I inspected it, and it still looked like new. And I'm pretty sure our engines are non-interference, which means you won't damage your internals if the timing belt snaps. So, my theory is don't worry about it unless it breaks... and carry a cell phone in case it does.