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2003 Corolla Belt Worn Out

by BlkRollaS2003, October 7, 2006



I went to the dealer this morning to get my oil changed and they told me that the belt also needs to be replaced. They took me out into the garage and showed me how the belt was starting to look cracked. I told them I couldn't today. They told me it would be around $75 to get it replaced. Does this sound resasonable or way to much??

My serpentine belt needed to be replaced after around three years as well. The thing is, there was less than 30,000 miles on the car at the time. This seems like a mighty short life span for this belt, considering how expensive it is. Mine was replaced under warranty, since I had it replaced maybe a month or so before the warranty expired. Next one is on me, naturally.

My serpentine belt needed to be replaced after around three years as well. The thing is, there was less than 30,000 miles on the car at the time. This seems like a mighty short life span for this belt, considering how expensive it is. Mine was replaced under warranty, since I had it replaced maybe a month or so before the warranty expired. Next one is on me, naturally.

Yours was replaced under warrantee?? I get the platinum warrantee and they said the belt was not covered! Well my car has almost 85,000 on it so I guess I can't complain. Was just wondering if $75 seemed reasonable.

My serpentine belt needed to be replaced after around three years as well. The thing is, there was less than 30,000 miles on the car at the time. This seems like a mighty short life span for this belt, considering how expensive it is. Mine was replaced under warranty, since I had it replaced maybe a month or so before the warranty expired. Next one is on me, naturally.

Yours was replaced under warrantee?? I get the platinum warrantee and they said the belt was not covered! Well my car has almost 85,000 on it so I guess I can't complain. Was just wondering if $75 seemed reasonable.

 

i got it done for 68$ all inclusive in Massachusetts at the dealer..other one was asking $120..75$ is reasonable for a dealer considering bel costs 32$.

  • 1,424 posts
My serpentine belt needed to be replaced after around three years as well. The thing is, there was less than 30,000 miles on the car at the time. This seems like a mighty short life span for this belt, considering how expensive it is. Mine was replaced under warranty, since I had it replaced maybe a month or so before the warranty expired. Next one is on me, naturally.

Yours was replaced under warrantee?? I get the platinum warrantee and they said the belt was not covered! Well my car has almost 85,000 on it so I guess I can't complain. Was just wondering if $75 seemed reasonable.

That's because Larry had his replaced under the bumper to bumper factory warranty. It covers belts and hoses if they wear out before 3 years or 36k because any belt that wears out that fast is defective and Toyota warrants all components of the car to be defect free for the entire warranty period. You're outside of your factory warranty and your platnium extended coverage isn't the same thing as a factory warranty. It does not cover every single part on the car like the bumper to bumper warranty does. Specifically it does not cover any wear items such as brake discs, pads or shoes, tires, belts, hoses, wipers, or the clutch. This is how Toyota makes money, as these components wear out and they don't have to pay since they aren't covered.

My serpentine belt needed to be replaced after around three years as well. The thing is, there was less than 30,000 miles on the car at the time. This seems like a mighty short life span for this belt, considering how expensive it is. Mine was replaced under warranty, since I had it replaced maybe a month or so before the warranty expired. Next one is on me, naturally.

Yours was replaced under warrantee?? I get the platinum warrantee and they said the belt was not covered! Well my car has almost 85,000 on it so I guess I can't complain. Was just wondering if $75 seemed reasonable.

That's because Larry had his replaced under the bumper to bumper factory warranty. It covers belts and hoses if they wear out before 3 years or 36k because any belt that wears out that fast is defective and Toyota warrants all components of the car to be defect free for the entire warranty period. You're outside of your factory warranty and your platnium extended coverage isn't the same thing as a factory warranty. It does not cover every single part on the car like the bumper to bumper warranty does. Specifically it does not cover any wear items such as brake discs, pads or shoes, tires, belts, hoses, wipers, or the clutch. This is how Toyota makes money, as these components wear out and they don't have to pay since they aren't covered.

That's what I figured ... the extended warranty has already paid for it's self though. I had some transmission problems and that was all covered so I'm not to upset. So it sounds like $75 isn't to bad. I'll have then do it next weekend.

That's a good price.

Both my mechanic and my dealer charge $120.

$75 isn't bad at all, my dealder wanted $130. But I would say go to Autozone buy a good belt for $30 and learn to do it yourself. That's what I did, and I'm no automachic at all. Could save you more and more money down the road as it appears these belts need to be replaced every 30k miles or so.

Price for the belt $20-30.

5 min to replace yourself. No special tools are required.

Compress the belt tensioner, use the wrencn

Remove old belt Remenber the belt path

run the new one

Compress belt tensione and put the belt on the belt tensioner pulley.

I have a 2001 Corolla CE, bought it new.......currently, it has about 136,000 miles.......but I haven't changed the belt yet......should I? I looked at the belt, it looks fine, I didn't see any crack.....

default_ph34r

Price for the belt $20-30. 5 min to replace yourself. No special tools are required.

 

Compress the belt tensioner, use the wrencn

Remove old belt Remenber the belt path

run the new one

Compress belt tensione and put the belt on the belt tensioner pulley.

 

I would do it myself, but I don't have anyplace where I can work on my car right now. I used to be able to use my Mothers or Grandparents garage but I have moved and no longer have access to such niceties.

Hopefully in about a year I will be able to move into my own house with a garage.

I just changed the belt last month @ 70k miles.

It took me 15min, and some elbow grease.

All I needed was one socket wrench.

They prob want to charge you $25 for the belt and $50 in labor.

Last weekend, I had to replace my ignition switch on my 4runner.

Dealer price (and Autozone price) for the part was $85. They told me $300 to replace it. $400 total!

I got the part for $65 (used my company name to get a discount), took off 7 screws & 2 connectors, swapped it out, and had it back together in less than 40min.

If its simple, and you have the time, do it yourself.

You can learn from it, and I get a feeling of great satisfaction...

tdk

I just changed the belt last month @ 70k miles. It took me 15min, and some elbow grease.

 

All I needed was one socket wrench.

They prob want to charge you $25 for the belt and $50 in labor.

Last weekend, I had to replace my ignition switch on my 4runner.

Dealer price (and Autozone price) for the part was $85. They told me $300 to replace it. $400 total!

I got the part for $65 (used my company name to get a discount), took off 7 screws & 2 connectors, swapped it out, and had it back together in less than 40min.

If its simple, and you have the time, do it yourself.

You can learn from it, and I get a feeling of great satisfaction...

tdk

 

I would do this stuff but at my apartment I would have to try to work on my car on the street. Once I have a place I can keep my tools out and easily jack my car up when neeed I will do all my own stuff ... until them I have to pay someone else to do it default_sad

Bikeman982

I just changed the belt last month @ 70k miles.

It took me 15min, and some elbow grease.

All I needed was one socket wrench.

They prob want to charge you $25 for the belt and $50 in labor.

Last weekend, I had to replace my ignition switch on my 4runner.

Dealer price (and Autozone price) for the part was $85. They told me $300 to replace it. $400 total!

I got the part for $65 (used my company name to get a discount), took off 7 screws & 2 connectors, swapped it out, and had it back together in less than 40min.

If its simple, and you have the time, do it yourself.

You can learn from it, and I get a feeling of great satisfaction...

tdk

 

I would do this stuff but at my apartment I would have to try to work on my car on the street. Once I have a place I can keep my tools out and easily jack my car up when neeed I will do all my own stuff ... until them I have to pay someone else to do it default_sad

Don't you have any friends that have a yard, or garage to let you do a quick belt change?

 

Stop by my house and I will show you how it is done.

OK guys, I am getting interested in changing the serpintine belt myself,

any step by step instructions would be appreciated by the local pros ...

Only one nut to loosen the belt tensioner ??

Hey guys,,,,, how do you access the belt tensioner and where is it ??

looks pretty cramped in the area.

Also, from reading on the board here, you just loosen the real nut and then

loosen the belt by leveraging on the fake nut above ??

When you put belt back,,,,, do you take the slack off the belt with the

fake nut and tighten the real nut at the same time ??

Black Rolla,

Until I moved into my house, I used to do everything in the parking lot of my apt or a friend's apt. When I was living at home, I did everything on the street in front of my parent's house.

Just start in the morning, and plan to spend most of the day doing it (and pray that you have all the parts you need - I had to pack EVERYTHING in the car, borrow mom's car to shop for parts or tools a few times).

Where there's a will, there's a way.

BHP,

Sorry, dont have any photos... and kinda hard to describe (picture is worth a thousand words)

The tensioner is towards the back of the engine bay.

I looked at a Haynes manual to figure out the location. One of the guru's may be able to give you a better idea of the location.

I losened the "real" nut, but I was not sure if I really needed to.

I think I used a 1/2" drive wrench to push counter-clockwise to release the tension (I couldnt get enough power with a 3/8" drive). It is pretty tight, so no worries about pulling back and tightening at the same time. Just let it go, and it will stay tight... come to think of it, isnt that what a tensioner is supposed to do?

Just as a tip, in my case, I found that I needed to slip the belt on near the tensioner. I spent 10min trying to slip the belt around the pully furtherst towards the front, and just didnt have enough slack. Finally gave up and tried to slip it on at a different pully, took me 1 try, and it was done. (hope this makes sense!)

good luck

tdk

I have a 2001 Corolla CE, bought it new.......currently, it has about 136,000 miles.......but I haven't changed the belt yet......should I? I looked at the belt, it looks fine, I didn't see any crack.....

default_ph34r

I have the same car as you, with 77k miles. Just have the belt changed. I bought the belt from autozone for $15, and have it replaced in a garage cost me $35.

Thanks to everyone, I have learnt to DIY lots of things on my car I replaced it with a Dayco that cost ~$30. Had to use a metal pipe over the wrench for extra leverage when loosening the tensioner. When putting the belt back on, I found putting the alternator pulley on last to be easiest. Overall a very simple 30min job default_smile

My 01 Corolla just turned 200,000 miles. I replaced the first belt at 100,000 miles and I just replaced the second at 200,000 miles. The belt cost about $25.00 and took just a few minutes to do.



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