I changed my 2003 Corolla Belt Tensioner last weekend for the rattling problem that is the subject of Toyota Technical Service Bulletin EG021-07. I used the $50 tensioner from Auto Zone. I also replaced the belt with a Goodyear Gatorback.
Here is the procedure I followed for a 1ZZ-FE engine. If you have the 2ZZ-GE, according to the TSB, you have to move some air conditioner lines out of the way so things will be a little more difficult.
Here are my steps, which parallel the steps in the TSB for the 1ZZ-FE. (It is good to have a copy of the TSB, since it has a good drawing of the tensioner. I was able to get a copy from the computer at my local library.)
1. Remove the belt by rotating the tensioner arm toward the front of the car. Use a long 19mm wrench on the hex stud on the tensioner itself. Easiest to pull the belt off of the alternator first. The TSB says to remove the right-hand engine under cover. I did not need to do this.
2. Remove the 12mm bolt above the hydraulic "pod" on the tensioner and remove the very long 17 mm main bolt at the other end of the tensioner. These two are the only attachments for the tensioner, so it is a very easy concept. In practice, not so easy. The factory had the bolts on so tight it required a heck of a lot of leverage to loosen them.
My longest wrench wasn't long enough to get enough leverage, and the pipe that I have was too narrow to go over the wrench. Using a hammer made me nervous because of the air conditioner lines nearby. I ended up having to run around town to find a combination of tools to give me a long enough lever to break the bolts free.
Then, the main bolt won't come out all the way because it is so long it hits the side of the car's frame before it can be fully removed. The TSB doesn't mention this. I was afraid I was going to have to remove the upper engine mount and lift the engine. Luckily, I was able to get enough clearance by lifting the engine without removing the engine mount. I just put a floor jack under the oil pan (with a piece of wood for protection) and jacked it up a few pumps. Just the little bit of clearance by taking the weight off the engine mount was enough.
Installation of the new one was easy aside from a lot of wiggling of things to get it into position.
3. "Prime" the tensioner by slowly rotating it back and forth several times. I'm not sure this really did anything, but so says the TSB.
4. Install the new belt. It is always difficult to string belts around all the pulleys properly, but no worse on the Corolla than any other car. After several tries, I couldn't get the belt around the alternator pulley. I found it easier to make the last pulley the idler pulley instead.
If you have all the tools available, the process shouldn't take more than an hour or two.
I just did the same job this evening and thought I'd chip in with an additional suggestion based on my encounter. Unfortunately, simply jacking the motor up was not even close to being enough to get the main large bolt out of the original tensioner. I ended up loosening the 3 motor mount bolts about as far out as they could go without coming out completely and jacking up the engine, which still didn't look like it would give nearly enough room. After some time I found that it was enough once the large bolt was loosened as the bolt will be able to move around and pivot up once it is completely loose. I thought there was no way it would come out but with the motor mount bolts loosened and the motor jacked up, it was just enough.
For the job you will need a 12mm wrench, a 17mm wrench, and a 19mm socket wrench. I'd highly recommend using something like a GearWrench for taking off the main large bolt, as it was a time (and frustration) saver instead of turning that LONG bolt an 1/8 turn at a time with a box end wrench.
The entire job took about 1 hour from start to finish, including playing around with the motor mount bolts quite a bit.
I just replaced mine as well, and my noise is gone. I did have to purchase a long 17mm wrench or rather a whole set of long mm wrenches, @ harbor freight for $21 they probably wont last long...
I was able to get the bolt out without having to jack up the motor or loosen the motor mounts. The AC High pressure line was in the right in the way, however I had enough plan on it to move it down and out of the way.
When I got the bolt far enough out, I was able to wiggle it and the tensioner out and up and the entire assembly came out… The new one went on just as easy as did the belt… I ended up ordering the OEM part as it was very close in price to the after market… Lets hope Toyota has gotten it right, I believe this one is their 5 version of the part…
Maybe I spoke too soon. In the fall, I began to notice a bit of rattling with the car at idle. The autozone tensioner was starting to go bad after 5 years. I think it is just a fundamental reliability issue with this type of hydraulic tensioner.
I was rather shocked to see that the prices of replacement tensioners are way up.
After seeing some bad quality reviews on the equivalent tensioners currently available at the big auto parts chains, I dedided to try a new kind that uses a spring instead of hydraulic. I used the ACDelco 39068, which is exactly the same as several other brands with the sping loading. Big mistake. The spring loaded tensioner made weird noises as soon as I put the car in reverse to back out of the garage.
I took it back and replaced it with a Hayden 5578 hydraulic version that appears to be a different design than the ones currently getting bad quality reviews. No problems so far after a few months. It cost about 100 bucks, though.
