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I am in the process of replacing my Idler Pulley (the one by the power steering pump.) I thought it would be a quick job. I pulled the air box, and got my 15mm box on it. Cracked it loose and started to remove. It was quick until it hit the aluminum carrier bracket. Is it possible to replace the Idler Pulley without removing the bumper, muffler and carrier?
Any tricks are appreciated.
Thanks,
Shawn
Could you put a jack under the engine, loosen the engine mounts, and jack the engine up an inch or two for clearance?
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That idler roller got noisy on my 03 Turbo and was replaced.
When I viewed the car in the service bay the tech had the rear bumper cover and the air filter box removed to access that area.
He said that's the easiest one to get to and replace but it is still a pain. Thankfully the car was under a CPO warranty so I did not have to pay for the repair.
I just did it. The pressed aluminum carrier is definitely in the way. AND it appeared that it would lower with the engine, so that wouldnt help.
Just got a flat pry bar and flexed it out of the way- definitely took some fiddling to get the bolt/pulley in and out, and not permanently bend the carrier.
I had thought the bumper cover was removed but I recalled I had some pics of the car when it was in for this and the last pic I looked at showed the entire accessory drive area exposed with air box absent and the bumper cover still in place.
Thank you for the posts, so let me return in kind.
As mentioned above you do not need to remove the rear bumper to get the pulley out. Also you do not need to loosen the 18MM nuts for the engine support. Even with them loosened the carrier shield is still bolted to the engine and will raise and lower with the engine. I had a jack under my motor, but don't believe you need that either.
Here are the steps to removing the pulley and I will add some pictures as well.
1) Remove the air box
2) Loosen idler pulley bolt (mine was a 15MM, but the new one was a star head) Picture attached of my wrench trick to get more torque
3) Loosen the 15MM carrier shield bolts (2 of them) Picture Attached
4) Remove the tension from the tensioner pulley with a 15MM socket (Slip off the belt (as little as possible)) Picture Attached
5) Remove the 15MM bolt from the idler pulley. (This is not easy because it hits the shield, so I took a block and pried the shield back. I only needed about 1/4-3/8 extra distance which I got from the loosened carrier shield bolts above)
6) With the bolt out, you can pull the pulley apart. (didn't know this until I went to put the new one in.) Picture Attached
7) Time to put the new parts in. (I had to remove the O'ring from the new bolt so I could install it in pieces, which would have made one more hand nice.)
8) Put everything back - reverse order.
Some back ground:
I think the Pulley had been going out for a while and it had made a variation of different noises. From clicking noises, to growling noises, until finally it sounded like I had a roots blower back there. The gear noise was at idle all the way through all the gears and it was obvious that it was RPM dependent. I suspected the Power Steering Pulley because of the location of the sound, but the frequency wouldn't change when I turned the steering wheel. It also didn't change when I pressed in the clutch. This made me suspect the Idler Pulley.
Now that it is replaced, what a difference it makes. Other than the exhaust the car is quiet again! This makes me realize that the bearing in the pulley had probably been slowly dying for months...
"it sounded like I had a roots blower back there. The gear noise was at idle all the way through all the gears and it was obvious that it was RPM dependent."
Great description, I recently bought my car and it had this noise when purchased. I figured it was the pump and received the appropriate price reduction. Pulled the belt and hand-spun the pulleys, the last one rattled badly and I dared to hope that was the problem, not the pump. Replaced the two idlers and the tensioner--no more noise! My cousin - 35 year veteran mechanic - swore it was the pump-sure sounded like a groaning pump, had us both fooled. Sorry for the resurrection, but reading that description before I attempted the repair was an inspiration. Laughed out loud when I fired her up after the pulley replacements and the groan/whine was gone. Cheers
Managed to change the pulley without removing anything other than the airbox/ypipe. I loosened the 2 top bolts of the engine carrier plate with a long 11mm closed end wrench and took the passenger side engine mount off. This allowed me to pull the engine carrier back enough to back the bolt off and take the pulley out. I did this in 2 steps to make the removal and install of the pulley easier. I took the bolt out of the pulley then took the pulley and spacer out together. Install is reverse and the tricky part was trying to get the o-ring on. Good lighting and a second pair of hands to help pull the engine carrier back definitely makes it easier.
One thing I did was to wrap the new pulley with electrical tape before the install. I noticed that the old pulley had some marks/gouges on the rolling surface from the removal likely when it hit the edge of the engine carrier or AC pulley. Not necessary but just an extra precaution. Attached is a picture of the tape being pulled off after successful torquing using a torque adapter.
