I had to replace my serpentine belt today. It had been squeaking due to the belt. How can you tell it's the belt and not a bearing? Spray a little water on the spinning belt from a spray bottle. If the squeak goes away, it's time for a new belt. If not, there's a bearing or accessory on it's way out.

Aston had an update to the belt and a pulley in '08 so make sure your car has the update before going through the trouble of doing this job. Otherwise you might need to buy the new pulley too.

I thought I'd walk through the steps. I didn't get an pictures, sorry. The process is fairly easy, but it helps to have skinny, long arms.

1 - Remove the radiator cover panel - 12 torx fasteners. Why so many fasteners? Aston overkill.
2 - Release the plastic band clamp that holds the T-shaped intake tube to the throttle body. These clamps are called "herbie" clamps. There is a central toothed rib held in a slot which is also ribbed on both sides. The easiest way to release them is to push sideways on the central rib with a large, flat tool like a bladed screw driver. Push the rib out of the slot all the way and the clamp will release. There are a couple of breather tubes that are held to the T-tube with quick connects, release them as well. Also a good time to clean out the throttle body of any built up carbon.
3 - Release the T-shaped intake tube from the two tubes that run from the air filters. Two more "herbies"
4 - Make note of the way the belt is routed and which side the ribs are on. This is REALLY important. Make a little drawing.
5 - Locate the belt tensoner. Its the pulley that is attached to the engine on the right side (facing the front) with the thick silver arm and bolt at the end. This holds the belt in tension. There is a square hole in the silver arm near the pulley. This is a 3/8" square hole meant to accept a 3/8" drive.
6 - Use a 3/8" ratchet or breaker bar in that hole to release the belt. Pull the breaker bar towards the right (facing front) so that the arm pivots to the left. Pull the belt off one of the pulleys while doing this to remove the belt. Watch your fingers.
7 - Take the breaker bar off of the tensioner.
8 - The belt comes off pretty easily, but needs to be fished around the back of the tensioner pulley to get it off. Fish the belt between the pulley and the engine block. Mine also got hung up on the pulley at the lower right of the engine and had to be wiggled free.
9 - To install the new belt, fish it in behind the tensioner pulley the same way the old one came off and route the belt through the all the pulleys but the left, lower most location. This is a good time to take a breather and look at the belt routing and the ribbed side to make sure it's right.
10 - Now reattach the breaker bar and rotate the tensioner. It will need to be moved alot more than it did to get the old belt off so it might be helpful to have someone else pull on the breaker bar.
11 - While pulling on the tensioner, put the belt around the last pulley. Make sure the belt is in all the appropriate grooves and routed correctly, and release the tensioner.
12 - Double check belt routing and location all around.
13 - Reinstall the T-shaped tube and the radiator cover. The best way to do this is with a large pair of pliers. Put a rag on the clips and clamp down with the pliers until the band won't rotate around the hose any more.
14 - Enjoy the pleasant, squeak-free growl of Britain's finest.

 

great write up, did mine a month ago,
glad i got skinny arms ,lol i replaced the pulley to the new style
with required belt 9G ...... the pulley i took off had the the shoulder
on it like the upgrage, but was quite surprised to see ford motor co
stamped on it, ????

 

Maybe I didn't look close enough. I didn't see the Ford logo. I ended up finding the belt from FCKerbeckParts on ebay for $80 shipped and delivered to me in 2 days. My dealer wanted $100 + tax.

 

I've got what appears to be a new 2 shoulder idler, but the old style belt. I've got a bit of what appear to be belt squeak but only around 1500rpm and only when cold. Should I get the new style belt?

 

Try the water spray trick and see if it's the belt. If so, replace it.

 

The two belts do look different, but I was comparing old vs new. I'm not sure what the actual difference is between the belts. Just to make things more complicated, if there is any change to a part (even if it's identical but sourced from a different supplier), the part will get a new part number. If you're still getting a squeak with the new pulley (and so long as the pulley and belt were installed properly), I'd say it's the belt.

Here's a look at the belts side-by-side:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ce-things.html

 

From what I can tell there have been two updates. Both the 6g and 9g have pulleys with guides on two sides. There was an even older version with a different design. I also see no visible difference between the 6g and 9g belts.