I want to buy a new Serpentine belt. I was thinking to go with Gates.
1. Is Gates good?
2. Should I get the belt tensioner changed as well, and go with Gates too here? From Rockauto...
3. What about the idler pulley?
4. What about the tensioner pulley, should I get that changed too?
Gates is arguably the best - ie the Golden standard of belts and hoses. As for the tensioners and pulleys, if they aren't failing - ie whining pulleys and weak tensioners - they don't need to be replaced. They're typically good for the life of the vehicle.
Don´t know about gates, but i´m running a goodyear gatorback on my 4.7. A very silent running belt.
And regarding the tensioner, there is normally no need to change it, as long as the belt doesn´t slip.
The pulleys however are an other story. When the belt is of, turn the idler and tensioner pulleys by hand and feel for play and listen for noise. A bit of play is not a problem, but if you can hear the balls rolling in the bearing, then it means that the grease is gone. A bearing like this can still run for a while, but most probably will seize at a certain point in time and ruin your belt and probably your day. So its a good thing to check those bearings at least when you change the belt, or at any time that you have the belt of for some other reason.
See here pictures from an other member who had a seized tensioner pulley bearing: http://jeepgarage.org/f203/strange-ticking-from-a-c-pulley-or-thereabouts-9522.html
If I changed both pulleys and the tensioner itself along with the serpentine belt, would the labor cost go much higher you think?
Ok last call guys, do I change just the serp belt, or the belt and all the pulleys and tensioner? If I were to take a picture of how it looks under my hood would it help you tell me? Thanks for the info!!
BTW Frango, what did you mean on the other topic by "when only the pulleys are damaged, you can also only replace them and not the whole tensioner"?
The idler and tensioner pulleys are both part of the complete tensioner assy. So since you have the complete tensioner already, i would just change that and the belt. In my previous post i ment to say that you could just buy both pulleys and not the whole tensioner.
I told you that changing the tensioner was not necessary, so didn't think at telling that the tensioner would come complete. Also when you buy from Rockauto, you will see the picture of the part that you are buying. Also it seems that the hayden pulley is too big.