cooch t31
X-TRAIL HOLIC
Date Registered: 06-2008
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
TOTAL POSTS: 5966
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Re:
At least it was what you thought Todd.
Must be a PITA to although not a bad quote.
--- Tony X-891c
HERE is my D22 Navara
HERE is my old 2008 T31, ST Series1
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22/Jun/2012, 4:13 pm
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Toddyh03
X-TRAIL HOLIC
Date Registered: 08-2011
Location: Lalor Park, NSW
TOTAL POSTS: 1663
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Re: Drive belt pulley tensioner
yeah Tony like I said considering what it has been through recently not too unhappy.
--- Toddyh X-2048 (c)
New: Challenger
Old: 2010 T31 Diesel modified
My XTrail
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22/Jun/2012, 7:01 pm
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saratoga
X-TRAIL NEWBIE
Date Registered: 07-2008
Location: Melbourne, Australia
TOTAL POSTS: 38
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Re:
Xtrail T30 2003 208,000kms Some deeper river crossings, puddles, but never stuck in deep mud or water.
Early one morning I heard what sounded like a sudden catastrophic bearing or pulley failure in the engine. I pulled over quickly but the noise disappeared. Unable to find anything wrong I continued on. A week or so later (perhaps 1500kms) much the same again but this time worse and the noise continued as a bit of a clattering sound. The thing that really puzzled me was that the noise continued for a second or so after the engine stopped turning and it was very difficult to pinpoint exactly where the noise was coming from in the engine bay; at several stages it sounded like an internal engine noise. With the aid of a long screwdriver with the handle pressed against my ear and the point against various engine parts ( be very careful doing this near moving parts!) I was able to confidently pinpoint the source to the alternator. A bit of research and I had an explanation as to why the noise was running on after the engine shut down. The pulley on the front of the alternator is known as a decoupler, so it is not in constant drive with the alternator, it engages and disengages and this explained why it was running on. A special tool is needed to remove it so I figured it was a job for the auto-electrician.
I removed the serpentine belt and alternator myself; the alternator is a bit fiddly as you have to undo a couple of clamps holding a wiring loom and some hard to get at bolts, but quite manageable. If you turn and manoeuvre it a bit you can just squeeze it out of the engine bay without removing other things. Dropped the alternator into the auto-elect and a few hours later it was done and bench tested. The alternator clutch pulley/decoupler was about $95 and he charged me only $30 in labour to fit it and bench test the unit, so the actual replacement of the decoupler is very quick with the right tools. He said that these decoupler style pulleys were regularly giving up around the 80K mark and that many manufactures were going back to the older style constant drive pulleys that were more reliable. They can either just get very noisy, seize up and throw the belt, or shear off and sometimes go through the radiator, so something to keep in mind although this wasn't xtrail specific.
Refitting the alternator was a pain as lining up the holes underneath to insert the long bolt through was just hit and miss and took my over an hour.
At the time I noticed that another pulley, the tensioner pulley sounded a bit dry when spun so I got the auto-elect to order one in for me for an extra $30. I left that for another day but then found out that you can't replace the pulley by itself but that you have to replace the whole tensioner pulley assembly! So weeks later I purchased a Dayco aftermarket one from Bursons for $140 (The nissan one is the same price but they don't have any in stock)
After reading Daves post in this thread I decided to try and just replace the pulley, and if all failed then I had the whole unit and could fit that instead. Removing the pulley is straight forward and only takes a couple of minutes after removing the plastic shroud in the wheel well. You need a 14mm ring spanner and something like a 5mm allen key or thick nail. Put the spanner on the 14mm bolt on the pulley and turn it CLOCKWISE as if you were doing it up tighter. This causes the whole tensioner pulley to move and slacken off the pressure on the drive belt. Hold the pressure on the spanner while you insert the nail or whatever through the 2 holes (which are now lined up) and this will then hold the pulley in place and allow you to fiddle the serpentine belt off. With the nail, screwdriver or allen key through the holes and holding the tensioner backed of, you can now undo the 14mm pulley bolt by going the normal way of counterclockwise. It's then just a simple matter of installing the new pulley. You may have to put your finger around the back of the assembly to make sure the nut for the bolt doesn't get pushed out when you try to put the bolt back in and tighten it up. It's then just a matter of fiddling the belt back on. I put a new belt on as the old one had lots of small micro-cracks and it's never been changed before.
I don't know why in the manual it says that the pulley cannot be changed by itself and that you have to replace the whole unit. It seems very straight forward to replace just the pulley PROVIDED that you take the tension off the unit beforehand by inserting a nail, screwdriver or allen key through the two holes to hold the tension off. I'm heading off from Melbourne to Sydney in a few days so will take the new unused tensioner assembly with me just in case, but I plan on returning it after a Easter if everything is still running fine.
Apologies that this is so long winded, it is a pretty straightforward job and most people with a basic mechanical aptitude should be able to do it easily. Obviously of there was a problem with the tensioner itself I would have replaced the whole unit, but luckily for me it was just the pulley that was a little noisy, though would have kept going for many more thousands of kms.
I'll give you an update once I've done a few more kms, but with what Dave has already written it seems like this practice is ok!
Last edited by saratoga, 14/Apr/2014, 3:51 pm
--- Greg
Stock Standard Gold xtrail T30 Series I
2003 275,000km
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14/Apr/2014, 3:45 pm
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Revhead Kev
Date Registered: 10-2006
Location: Mona Vale, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
TOTAL POSTS: 6355
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Re: Drive belt pulley tensioner
Replaced the belt and tensioner today at 180k.
It was a fiddly job to get the top bolt out and back in, made difficult by the close proximity of bodywork to the pulleys but do-able with a small 1/4" drive socket set and small hands.
When re-installing, best to install lower bolt almost tight, then insert top bolt with fingers, move tensioner and install keeper bolt. This gives more room to fully tighten top bolt. Then release tensioner to allow access to the bottom bolt to fully tighten.
Belt had splits all around it so definitely time to be done before it broke.
After being taken off, the tensioner was found to have some play in the bearing.
The annoying rattle on startup seems to have gone and the engine sounds quieter.
--- Kev X450(c) T30 Guru
03 Titanium Ti T30 Series 1 **MODIFIED**
My Blog
My CarPC Worklog
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6/Feb/2016, 8:48 pm
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