Need part name/advice

[smokeU6s]

Whenver its cold I get an annoying squeal coming from my engine bay. Finally was unlazy enough to pop the hood and the belt (facing the intake) is defiantly making noise. I figure I am approaching 100k and the belt probably should be replaced anyway.

What is the name of the belt? Is there a How-To to replace it? Would I require special tools? Otherwise what should be a reasonable cost for having the deal replace it?

Thanks in advance for the info.

Ben

Edit: I found that it is the water pump pully. What tools are needed to replace it? I know there is a DIY on the forum for the serpantine belt, but what about this guy.


I guess I need a pully tensioner as well?

[CanyonRider]

You can buy a new tensioner and belt for your 04 car. There are just a couple of 10mm bolts holding the tensioner on.



Or you can eliminate the tensioner like in the 06 car and just buy the shorter 06 belt and roll it over the pulley as you turn it by hand.



Your choice! Good luck.

[smokeU6s]

Might sound like a retarded question but what advantage/disadvantge do you gain by swapping the 04 design w/ the 06 design? Im assuming its just generally smoother operation?

[84FordMan]

The 2006 design incorporated a new design of belt, it's not your standard serpentine belt. It has elastic polymers in the construction of the belt that allows it to stretch to fit and then snap back to proper tension, without the aid of a spring loaded belt tensioner. Be careful, a lot of parts houses have the belt listed incorrectly, by length only and will try to sell you a standard serpentine belt.

http://www.gates.com/stretchfit/

I believe Gates is the only belt company that has come to market with these so far, I haven't seen anything from Dayco.

[CanyonRider]

QUOTE (smokeU6s @ Oct 6 2009, 08:46 AM)

Might sound like a retarded question but what advantage/disadvantge do you gain by swapping the 04 design w/ the 06 design? Im assuming its just generally smoother operation?[/b]

The advantage is one less part to fail - the tensioner. As 84FordMan said - you need to get the right belt.

[DRB94]

There is no cross reference that I could find to use a different belt other than the oem on mine. BUT, I did find one by physically matching it up to a belt at the parts store. BUT, Fordman is right, the oem belt is a special belt. I did use the cheaper 4 dollar version. The reason I did this was, the correct belt could not be located in North Carolina at the time and would have had to have come from Norfolk and took me 3 more days and cost 135.00 But by being in a hurry and not getting the correct belt, I learned a lesson. I had to get a mechanic friend to use a pulley puller and he did charge me good fashion to take up a bay in his garage. If you go with the 06 design, get the proper belt. I need to replace the one I put on after 6 months.

[rwhitney]

if the belt has stopped turning, i know i need a new belt, but is there something i can do to make it last till morning, i need to do about 20min of driving. any suggestions ?